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African Countries Face Terror of Wagner Group

The power struggle between President Vladimir Putin and the Wagner Group and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin will likely have huge implications for Africa. Wagner mercenaries are active in several African countries, including Central African Republic and Mali.

In the Central African Republic, for example, 1,890 so-called "Russian instructors" are supporting government troops in the ongoing civil war, according to the Russian ambassador. The latest report from The Sentry reveals that "systematic efforts by Russia to undercut democracy in Africa have inhibited democratic development in two dozen African countries."

Voice of America reports that the United States has accused companies in the United Arab Emirates, the Central African Republic and Russia of engaging in illicit gold deals to help fund the Wagner Group. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement it has sanctioned four companies linked to Wagner and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that it alleged were used to help pay the paramilitary's forces fighting in Ukraine and undertaking operations to support Russian interests in Africa.

John F. Clark writes for The Conversation that it is easy to understand what African rulers see in the mercenary group. The group's mercenaries can be deployed quickly, and the group brings sophisticated arms with it and can apply force and ruthlessly.

Wagner has been accused of atrocities, including mass murder and rape, across Africa and alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

In Libya, up to 1,200 Wagner mercenaries are believed to be fighting on the side of rebel leader Khalifa Hifter. In Mali, the pro-Russian, anti-Western military junta has also brought hundreds of Wagner fighters into the country. There, they have been accused of committing serious human rights violations.

The Sentry

One of the recommendations from The Sentry's report on Wagner activities in Central African Republic: UN member states should establish a coalition similar to the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh/ISIS—critically including African states—to counter the Wagner Group’s malign influence on the African continent and elsewhere by focusing on the group’s finances, movement of foreign fighters, and propaganda.

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Russia’s disruption of democratic processes occurs through both official channels (such as blocking UN resolutions condemning African regimes’ human rights abuses or fraudulent electoral claims) and irregular means (such as disinformation campaigns targeting democratic proponents, election interference, the deployment of Wagner paramilitary forces, or illicit arms for resources deals), says Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Systematic efforts by Russia to undercut democracy in Africa have inhibited democratic development in two dozen African countries.

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Russia is ... helping prevent political rights, civil liberties, and checks and balances on the executive branch from gaining traction in some of the continent’s most enduring authoritarian systems. As a result, despite massive popular protests for democracy in places like Algeria, Guinea, Sudan, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, exclusionary regimes persist, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies report says.

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