The arrival of new Russian mercenaries is creating turmoil in the Sahel. The “African corps” which replaces the Wagner group announced on Telegram on January 24, the deployment of a contingent of around a hundred men in Burkina Faso. The same day, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti published an article indicating that this “African corps” would be reinforced by 200 men and that by the summer, it would be able to operate in five countries: CAR, Libya, Mali, Burkina and Niger . A perspective which in Niamey does not seem to have a consensus.
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The meeting took place in Moscow on January 16, on the sidelines of the visit of Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahamane Lamine Zeine. A face-to-face meeting between Defense Ministers. On one side Salifou Modi for Niger, on the other the Russian vice ministers Alexandre Fomin and Younous Evkourov.
They discussed the acquisition of military equipment and the training of Nigerien soldiers. But it was not specified whether the arrival of a contingent mixing Russian soldiers and ex-Wagner mercenaries was also on the agenda of the discussions.
Because in Niamey, it is an eminently sensitive issue, as the meeting of January 3 at the army headquarters showed. The main leaders of the junta were gathered to discuss the prospect of an arrival of Russian soldiers. And the exchanges were heated, report high-ranking observers. There were the pro-Russians on the one hand: General Tiani, head of the junta, Salifou Modi Minister of Defense and on the other hand Moussa Barmou, chief of staff of the armed forces.
Moussa Barmou, an officer trained in the United States and described as a Washington man, is said to have violently opposed the Russian option. Until now confined to the backstage of the junta, the divisions are now public knowledge