For years, Russia has secretly supported authoritarian leaders, exploited natural resources and fought extremists in some African countries.
Russia worked through the Wagner Group, a shadowy web of political advisers, businessmen and mercenaries. But he never disclosed how closely he controlled Wagner’s activities around the world, keeping his distance as several accusations of human rights abuses were leveled against the group’s operatives on the ground.
Wagner was headed by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a ruthless tycoon who was once a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. But after Mr Prigozhin led a short-lived rebellion against Putin last June, Mr Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash.
Since then, Russia has been cutting off Wagner’s assets and redistributing them to Kremlin branches, according to interviews with a dozen diplomats and military and intelligence officials from Western countries, Russia and Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense has taken control of Wagner’s mercenary arm in Africa and placed it under a larger umbrella group, the Africa Corps. Russia’s defense and foreign ministries did not respond to a request for comment.
Here’s what you need to know about Africa Corps.
Where is Africa Corps deployed?
A few hundred trainers from the Africa Corps first arrived in Burkina Faso, West Africa, late last year, according to Western officials and the group’s channel on the Telegram messaging app, which diplomats, analysts and Russian news agencies believe trusted source for the team.
Since April, about 100 trainers from the agency have been deployed to Niger to train its military, a task until recently run by the United States and European countries. A week later, the United States announced that it would withdraw about a thousand troops from Niger.
Because Africa Corps is directly linked to Russia’s government, “it looks more legitimate to African governments,” said Sergey Eledinov, a security analyst and former spokesman for a Russian private military company that works in Africa.
Russia has also provided weapons to the two countries, where military juntas are struggling to contain jihadist rebels in the Sahel, a semi-arid region that straddles both nations.
Mercenaries from the Africa Corps have also been deployed to Libya, which Russia has long used as a logistical hub for military deployments in sub-Saharan Africa. Wagner’s mercenary activities there have been integrated into the Africa Corps, according to a European military official and a State Department official.
Africa Corps replaces Wagner?
About half of the African Corps recruits are veterans, Wagner said on her Telegram channel. And the jobs are similar: Africa Corps needs bodyguards, ground troops, drone operators and “electronic warfare specialists,” according to group ads.
But the Africa Corps acts as an umbrella for Russian paramilitary activities on the continent β not only those of Wagner, but also of other private military companies. The mercenaries deployed in Burkina Faso come from a new structure called Bearfor example.
“There is some kind of competition between these companies,” said Oleksandr V. Danylyuk, a former special adviser to the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service.
Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, oversees Africa Corps operations, according to the State Department.
“The goal is the same: To put control in many African countries,” added Mr. Danylyuk, who authored a recent report on Russia’s military activities beyond Ukraine.
The name Africa Corps is reminiscent of the Afrika Korps, the expeditionary force deployed by the Nazis in Africa during World War II. The Wagner band also carried a Nazi reference: It was named after the German composer Richard Wagner, one of Hitler’s favorites.
Wagner is not completely gone: Some of his operatives remain in the Central African Republic and Mali. Their close ties to local military, political and financial circles have made them difficult to remove or very useful for Russia, Western diplomats and analysts they say
A new propaganda vehicle, the African Initiative, has also been created to promote the growing ties between Russia and African countries. is supported by Russian intelligence services, according to the US State Department.
What does Russia want in Africa?
In short, Russia wants geopolitical influence and access to natural resources. But African leaders have many suitors: not only Russia, China, the United States and European countries, but also Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
Wagner’s mercenaries and disinformation specialists have played a key role in weakening Western interests on the continent and replacing European and American troops, as well as United Nations peacekeepers, in many countries.
These developments have alarmed American officials.
“The Russian Federation is really trying to take over Central Africa, as well as the Sahel,” said General Michael E. Langley, head of US Africa Command. he said Conference in March.
Russia has argued that it is advocating a new multipolar world order that will help African countries strengthen their sovereignty. But Russia is also seeking to increase its number of allies: many African countries abstained from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, or even supported it, during votes at the United Nations.
Russia has signed military cooperation agreements with 43 African countries since 2015, according to European Parliament. Russia was also the largest arms supplier to Africa between 2018 and 2022 40 percent of the continent’s arms imports.
Wagner agents have exploited gold mines in the Central African Republic and Sudan. Russian mining companies export diamonds from Angola and Zimbabwe, and bauxite from Guineaincluding.
Russia is also increasingly promoting a more classic state-to-state relationship.
The arrival of African Corps trainers in Burkina Faso late last year, for example, followed a meeting between Mr. Putin and the country’s leader, Capt. Ibrahim TraorΓ©, last summer. Russia opened an embassy there again.
Russia has also promised to help Burkina Faso and Mali develop their nuclear sectors and take in more African students at a time when Europe is trying to keep out migrants.
“Our friend Lavrov is back!” newspaper in Burkina Faso wrote recently as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov visited β one of a dozen African countries he has traveled to since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Mr. Lavrov promising Burkina Faso more military supplies and trainers.
“Western influence in some African countries has declined,” reports Africa Corps He wrote on the official Telegram channel last year. “A ‘window of opportunity’ has opened for the realization of our geopolitical interests.”
What do West Africans say?
West African leaders who have sought closer cooperation with Russia want personal protection, soldiers and weapons to fight rebels and Islamist insurgents linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
Some civil society activists, citizens and local politicians in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso interviewed over the past year say Russia is succeeding.
“This cooperation with Russia will help us end this war on terror,” said Boureima OuΓ©draogo, a pro-Russian civil society activist from Burkina Faso. “Our soldiers are no longer afraid.”
But just as African troops have been unable to defeat the rebels despite American and European support, they have also had limited success with their Russian partners, security experts say.
And abuses against civilians have soared in recent years since those armies called in Russian trainers, with Wagner mercenaries accused of mass killings and torture in Mali and rape and other crimes in the Central African Republic.
Sumayla Lakh, a Mali-based security analyst, said those living in big cities favor Russia’s presence as necessary. “But in remote areas where mercenaries are active, local populations are witnessing incidents of torture, arbitrary arrests and killings,” Mr Lach added.
“In those places, they don’t want them anymore.”
Eric Schmidt contributed to the report.