Unable to retrieve Samsung account

My husband's phone was ****** in DRC, his two step verification is active. We don't have the device. The phone number registered is a DRC Vodafone number, the simcard was in the phone. He is now back in South Africa, got a new Samsung device and there is no way to access the samsung account. We called Samsung and they said we need to create a new account. How is it possible that there is no way to retrieve the account. Or reset it temporarily to add a new phone number for verification. All his data and information is now lost.