On November 12 this year, 200 Russian “military instructors” arrived in the West African country of Equatorial Guinea. A few months earlier, on April 10, the same thing happened in Niger. In Niger’s neighboring countries Mali and Burkina Faso, Russia had previously established a military presence.
Everything points to the same thing – Russia is increasing its presence on the continent.
But it is the Central African Republic that is the Russian model country in Africa. Since the end of 2017, the Wagner Group, now Africa Corps, has increasingly begun to function as a parallel state.
The group has had far-reaching freedoms to mine gold, which could be exported without troublesome interference from authorities.
The Wagner boss is seen as a hero
When Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and several other prominent figures within the Wagner Group died last year, in a supposed downed plane, there was speculation as to how the Russian presence in Africa would be affected.
In the Central African Republic, the country’s leadership has seen Prigozhin as a hero. At the beginning of December this year, a statue of him was unveiled in the capital Bangui. Next to him is his right-hand man Dmitru Utkin, who also died in the same plane.
But Prigozhin’s death did not lead to any Russian collapse. Instead, Wagner was relaunched under a new name, Africa Corps, and subordinated to the Russian government.
The goal: Push out the West
A lot of other personnel changes have been carried out and certainly Ukraine has lost some manpower, but the ambitions and methods remain.
The ambitions are to push the West, especially France, out of African countries and the methods are to offer undemocratic leaders their full support.