THE PIVOT TO AFRICA 🌍 THREAD

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Shunned by Others, Russia Finds Friends in Africa

Shunned by Others, Russia Finds Friends in Africa
Africa’s largest arms dealer, Russia has ties to the continent that stretch back to the Cold War and helped Mr. Putin win rare support over the invasion of Ukraine.
March 3, 2022

A Russian flag seen in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in January, the day after a military takeover. Malin Fezehai for The New York Times
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Since the days of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s leaders have rejected American criticism of their friendships with autocrats like Fidel Castro of Cuba and Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya, whose countries backed them during the most desperate moments of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Now South Africans are defending their loyalty to another autocrat — Vladimir V. Putin — and sitting out the global outcry over his invasion of Ukraine.

At the United Nations on Wednesday, South Africa was among 24 African countries that declined to join the resounding vote denouncing Russian aggression: 16 African countries abstained, seven didn’t vote at all and one — Eritrea — voted against it, keeping company only with Russia, Belarus, Syria and North Korea.

The striking tally reflected the ambiguous attitude across much of the continent where, with a handful of exceptions, the Ukraine war has been greeted with conspicuous silence — a sharp contrast with Western countries that are expanding sanctions, seizing oligarchs’ yachts, pressing for war crimes investigations, and even openly threatening to collapse the Russian economy.

“Russia is our friend through and through,” Lindiwe Zulu, South Africa’s minister of social development, who studied in Moscow during the apartheid years, said in an interview. “We are not about to denounce that relationship that we have always had.”

Many African countries have a longstanding affinity with Russia stretching back to the Cold War: some political and military leaders studied there, and trade links have grown. And in recent years a growing number of countries have contracted with Russian mercenaries and bought ever-greater quantities of Russian weapons.

A few African countries have condemned Russian aggression as an attack on the international order, notably Kenya and Ghana. Some 25 African nations voted for the U.N. resolution that denounced Mr. Putin’s actions on Wednesday. But deep divisions in the continent’s response were apparent from the start.

A screen showing results from a vote on a resolution condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine during a special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.Justin Lane/EPA, via Shutterstock
The deputy leader of Sudan flew into Moscow on the first day of the conflict, exchanging warm handshakes with Russia’s foreign minister as warplanes bombed Ukrainian cities. Morocco, a longtime American ally, offered a watery statement, annoying American officials who nonetheless kept quiet.

In Ethiopia, Russian flags flew at a ceremony on Wednesday to commemorate a famous 19th century battle against Italian invaders, recalling the involvement of Russian volunteers who sided with Ethiopian fighters.

African sympathies for Ukraine were also diluted by reports of Ukrainian border guards forcing African students to the back of lines as they attempted to leave the country, raising a furor over racism and discrimination. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, which has 4,000 students in Ukraine, decried the reports.

Mr. Putin has partly sidestepped opprobrium in Africa by calling in chits that date back to the Cold War, when Moscow backed African liberation movements and presented itself as a bulwark against Western neocolonialism. On Sunday, Russia’s foreign ministry paused its focus on Ukraine to remind South Africa, in a Tweet, of its support for the fight against apartheid.


But Mr. Putin has also divided African opinion thanks to his own efforts to expand Russian influence across the continent through an unusual combination of diplomacy, guns and mercenaries.

In an effort to regain some of the influence that Moscow lost in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Putin hosted a glitzy summit in the southern Russian city of Sochi in 2019 that was attended by 43 African heads of state. A second Russia-Africa summit is scheduled for this fall.

But as Russia’s economy strained under Western sanctions imposed following the annexation of the Crimea in 2014, it could not afford the expensive enticements offered by other powers in Africa, like China’s cheap loans or Western development aid.

So it has offered no-questions weapons sales and the services of Russian mercenaries, many employed by the Wagner Group, a company linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Mr. Putin who is known as “Putin’s cook.”

In recent years, Wagner mercenaries have fought in civil wars in Libya and Mozambique, and are currently guarding the president of the Central African Republic, where they helped repel a rebel assault on the capital last year.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia hosted a glitzy summit meeting in 2019 in Sochi with the leaders of many African countries.Sergei Chirikov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In January, Wagner fighters appeared in Mali, as part of a deal to combat Islamist insurgents that infuriated France, the former colonial power, which last month declared it was pulling its own soldiers out of Mali.

The military junta ruling Mali denies inviting Wagner into the country, but U.S. military officials say as many as 1,000 Russian mercenaries are already operating there.

Russia’s influence also stems from weapons sales. Russia accounts for nearly half of all arms imports into Africa, according to Russia’s arms export agency and organizations that monitor weapons transfers.

Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to Know
One of Mr. Putin’s staunchest defenders in the past week was a powerful figure in Uganda, a major customer for Russian weapons. Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, said in a Tweet:

“The majority of mankind (that are non-white) support Russia’s stand in Ukraine.”

He added, “When the USSR parked nuclear armed missiles in Cuba in 1962, the West was ready to blow up the world over it. Now when NATO does the same they expect Russia to do differently.”

That reference highlighted a jarring contradiction in Mr. Putin’s new embrace of Africa, said Maxim Matusevich, a history professor at Seton Hall University, in New Jersey, who studies Russia’s relationships in Africa.

“During the Cold War, the Soviets were trying to sell socialism to African nations while criticizing Western colonialism and imperialism,” he said. Now, Russia is engaged in a fresh bid for influence in Africa, but driven by right-wing nationalism.

A Russian flag waving during the celebration of a 19th century battle against Italian invaders in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Wednesday.Amanuel Sileshi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A similar divide has emerged in Asia, where nations with authoritarian leaders or weak ties to the West have embraced Mr. Putin’s war or avoided criticism of Russian military aggression.

For Africans, the war could hit hard in the pocket. Last week the Automobile Association of South Africa predicted that rising fuel prices would reach a record high in the coming weeks. Food is getting more expensive too — Russia and Ukraine are major sources of wheat and fertilizer in Africa — at a time when many African countries are still reeling from the pandemic.

But the war could also have an economic upside for Africa, albeit one that could take years to be felt. As Europe pivots away from Russian gas imports, it could turn to African countries looking to exploit recently-discovered energy reserves.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania, which is seeking a $30 billion investment to tap a huge gas discovery in the Indian Ocean, said the invasion of Ukraine could provide an opportunity.

“Whether Africa or Europe or America, we are looking for markets,” she told The Africa Report, an online news outlet.

Elsewhere, though, Mr. Putin is still benefiting from his image as a thorn in the West’s side. Many South Africans remember that the United States supported the apartheid regime until the 1980s. South Africans also took a sour view of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Sithembile Mbete, a senior lecturer in political science and international relations at the University of Pretoria.

However, aside from the historical ties with Russia, South Africa is motivated to call for diplomacy rather than fighting because that approach aligns with the country’s stance on international conflicts for the past 30 years, she said.

“That is the lesson they took from South Africa’s own struggle — that actually apartheid ended when the two sides sat down at the table,” Ms. Mebete said. “When it came down to it, the conflict only ended through negotiation and through compromise.”

A sign proclaiming collaboration between Russian and the Central African military in downtown Bangui, Central African Republic, in 2019.Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
Reporting was contributed by Abdi Latif Dahir in Nairobi, Kenya, Ruth Maclean in Dakar, Senegal, Lynsey Chutel in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Aida Alami in Casablanca, Morocco.

Declan Walsh is the Chief Africa correspondent. He was previously based in Egypt, covering the Middle East, and in Pakistan. He previously worked at the Guardian and is the author of The Nine Lives of Pakistan. @declanwalsh

John Eligon is the Johannesburg bureau chief, covering southern Africa. He previously worked as a reporter on the National, Sports and Metro desks. His work has taken him from the streets of Minneapolis following George Floyd’s death to South Africa for Nelson Mandela’s funeral. @jeligon

A version of this article appears in print on March 4, 2022, Section A, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Shunned by West, Russia Finds Many Ties to Africa Still Hold. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

 

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Biden Approves Plan to Redeploy Several Hundred Ground Forces Into Somalia

Biden Approves Plan to Redeploy Several Hundred Ground Forces Into Somalia
The president also signed off on targeting about a dozen Shabab leaders in the war-torn country, from which Donald J. Trump largely withdrew in his final weeks in office.

May 16, 2022
A Somali soldier patrolling near the presidential palace after a car bombing in Mogadishu, the capital, in September. The Biden administration’s goal in Somalia is to try to reduce the threat from Shabab terrorists.
A Somali soldier patrolling near the presidential palace after a car bombing in Mogadishu, the capital, in September. The Biden administration’s goal in Somalia is to try to reduce the threat from Shabab terrorists.Farah Abdi Warsameh/Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — President Biden has signed an order authorizing the military to once again deploy hundreds of Special Operations forces inside Somalia — largely reversing the decision by President Donald J. Trump to withdraw nearly all 700 ground troops who had been stationed there, according to four officials familiar with the matter.

In addition, Mr. Biden has approved a Pentagon request for standing authority to target about a dozen suspected leaders of Al Shabab, the Somali terrorist group that is affiliated with Al Qaeda, three of the officials said. Since Mr. Biden took office, airstrikes have largely been limited to those meant to defend partner forces facing an immediate threat.

Together, the decisions by Mr. Biden, described by the officials on the condition of anonymity, will revive an open-ended American counterterrorism operation that has amounted to a slow-burn war through three administrations. The move stands in contrast to his decision last year to pull American forces from Afghanistan, saying that “it is time to end the forever war.”

Mr. Biden signed off on the proposal by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in early May, officials said. In a statement, Adrienne Watson, the National Security Council spokeswoman, acknowledged the move, saying it would enable “a more effective fight against Al Shabab.”

“The decision to reintroduce a persistent presence was made to maximize the safety and effectiveness of our forces and enable them to provide more efficient support to our partners,” she said.

Ms. Watson did not indicate the number of troops the military would deploy. But two people familiar with the matter said the figure would be capped at around 450. That will replace a system in which the U.S. troops training and advising Somali and African Union forces have made short stays since Mr. Trump issued what Ms. Watson described as a “precipitous decision to withdraw.”

The Biden administration’s strategy in Somalia is to try to reduce the threat from Al Shabab by suppressing its ability to plot and carry out complicated operations, a senior administration official said. Those include a deadly attack on an American air base at Manda Bay, Kenya, in January 2020.

In particular, the official said, targeting a small leadership cadre — especially people who are suspected of playing roles in developing plots outside Somalia’s borders or having special skills — is aimed at curtailing “the threat to a level that is tolerable.”

Asked to square the return to heavier engagement in Somalia with the American withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, following through on a deal Mr. Trump had made with the Taliban, the senior administration official argued that the two countries presented significantly different complexities.

For one, the official said, the Taliban have not expressed an intention of attacking the United States, and other militant groups in Afghanistan do not control significant enclaves of territory from which to operate and plan.

Given that Al Shabab appears to pose a more significant threat, the administration concluded that more direct engagement in Somalia made sense, the official said. The strategy would focus on disrupting a few Shabab leaders who are deemed a direct peril to “us, and our interests and our allies,” and maintaining “very carefully cabined presence on the ground to be able to work with our partners.”

Some outside analysts criticized the move, including Sarah Harrison, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group who is the lead author of an upcoming report on U.S. policy in Somalia. The United States had been trying to curb Al Shabab using military force for 15 years, and it had not worked, she said; it might have even prolonged the conflict.

“Sending in more U.S. troops and honing in on a small number of senior Al Shabab leadership is narrow in its aims and by definition cannot end the broader military fight absent more concerted and effective diplomatic and political efforts by the United States and others,” she said.

Intelligence officials estimate that Al Shabab has about 5,000 to 10,000 members; the group, which formally pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2012, has sought to impose its extremist version of Islam on the chaotic Horn of Africa country.

While Al Shabab mostly fights inside Somalia and only occasionally attacks neighboring countries, some members are said to harbor ambitions to strike the United States. In December 2020, prosecutors in Manhattan charged an accused Shabab operative from Kenya with plotting a Sept. 11-style attack on an American city. He had been arrested in the Philippines as he trained to fly planes.

Mr. Biden’s decision followed months of interagency deliberations led by the White House’s top counterterrorism adviser, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, over whether to accept the Pentagon plan, maintain the status quo or further reduce engagement in Somalia.

In evaluating those options, Ms. Sherwood-Randall and other top security officials visited Somalia and nearby Kenya and Djibouti, both of which host American forces, in October.

The administration’s deliberations about whether and how to more robustly go back into Somalia have been complicated by political chaos there, as factions in its fledgling government fought each other and elections were delayed. But Somalia recently elected a new parliament, and over the weekend, leaders selected a new president, deciding to return to power Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who led the country from 2012 to 2017.

An incoming senior official on Mr. Mohamud’s team welcomed the Biden administration’s move.

It was both timely and a step in the right direction because it “coincides with the swearing-in of the newly elected president who would be planning his offensive on Al Shabab,” the official said.

For months, American commanders have warned that the short-term training missions that U.S. Special Operations forces have conducted in Somalia since Mr. Trump withdrew most American troops in January 2021 have not worked well. The morale and capacity of the partner units have been eroding, they say.

Of each eight-week cycle, the senior administration official said, American trainers spend about three unengaged with partner forces because the Americans were either not in Somalia or focused on transit — and the travel in and out was the most dangerous part. Other officials have also characterized the system of rotating in and out, rather than being persistently deployed there, as expensive and inefficient.

Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the head of the Pentagon’s Africa Command, has warned of the threat Al Shabab poses to the region.
Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the head of the Pentagon’s Africa Command, has warned of the threat Al Shabab poses to the region.Drew Angerer/Getty Images
“Our periodic engagement — also referred to as commuting to work — has caused new challenges and risks for our troops,” Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the head of the Pentagon’s Africa Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March. “My assessment is that it is not effective.”

Intelligence officials have raised growing alarm about Al Shabab over the past several years as it has expanded its territory in Somalia. In its final year in office, the Obama administration had deemed Al Shabab to be part of the armed conflict the United States authorized against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Once Mr. Trump became president, he loosened controls on airstrikes there, and the Pentagon significantly escalated American combat activity. But shortly before leaving office, Mr. Trump ordered most American troops to pull out of Somalia — except for a small force that has guarded American diplomats at a bunker by the airport in Mogadishu.

On its first day in office, the Biden administration suspended a permissive set of targeting rules put in place by the Trump administration, instead requiring requests for strikes — except in self-defense — to be routed through the White House. (Africa Command also invoked that exception for strikes undertaken in the “collective” self-defense of Somali partner forces.)

That pause was supposed to take only a few months while the Biden administration reviewed how targeting rules had worked under both the Trump and Obama administrations and devised its own. But even though it has largely completed a proposed replacement described as a hybrid between the two preceding versions, final approval of that has stalled amid competing national security policy matters.

The military, for its part, has tried to continue training, advising and assisting Somali and African Union forces without a persistent presence on the ground, but gradually increased the length of shorter stays. During a visit to Somalia in February, General Townsend warned of the threat Al Shabab posed to the region.

“Al Shabab remains Al Qaeda’s largest, wealthiest and most deadly affiliate, responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents, including Americans,” he said. “Disrupting Al Shabab’s malign intent requires leadership from Somalis and continued support from Djibouti, Kenya, the U.S. and other members of the international community.”

 

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Olaf Scholz: Germany will work to restart Ukrainian grain exports to Africa | DW | 22.05.2022

Starting a three-day tour of Africa, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of the impact of Ukraine's war on the continent. He said Berlin would help restore grain exports from Europe to avoid a worsening food crisis.

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Germany is keen to pursue gas projects with Senegal, says Scholz on first African tour

 

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Germany shifts focus of military missions in West Africa

BERLIN (AP) — The German government backed a change to two of the country's military deployments in West Africa, moving hundreds of soldiers from Mali to neighboring Niger and shifting its emphasis in Mali from a European to a United Nations mission.

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Germany shifts focus of military missions in West Africa​

BERLIN (AP) — The German government backed a change to two of the country’s military deployments in West Africa, moving hundreds of soldiers from Mali to neighboring Niger and shifting its emphasis in Mali from a European to a United Nations mission.

Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said Wednesday the training and support previously provided to Malian forces would in the future be offered to the military of Niger for the region’s fight against Islamic extremists “due to the changed situation.”

France, which had a significantly larger military force in Mali, announced in February that it was pulling its troops out of the EU mission there by the summer amid tensions with the country’s ruling military junta.

Germany’s decision was also motivated by concerns that Malian forces receiving EU training could cooperate with Russian mercenaries operating in the country, Hoffmann said.

At the same time, Germany will increase its participation in a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, providing up to 1,400 soldiers.

The Cabinet’s decisions still need to be approved by parliament.

 

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If the AU was smart, they'd be pushing reparations for Namibia since Germany out here looking for energy handouts.

 

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African Union warns of ‘collateral impact’ as EU’s Russia sanctions hit food supplies

Developing nations say ban on Swift payment system for Russian banks impedes purchases of grain and fertiliser

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African Union warns of ‘collateral impact’ as EU’s Russia sanctions hit food supplies​

Developing nations say ban on Swift payment system for Russian banks impedes purchases of grain and fertiliser​

yesterday

A man carries a sack of imported wheat in Mogadishu, Somalia. The EU says the problem over payments is entirely the fault of Russia © Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP
Western sanctions on Russian banks have made it difficult or impossible for African countries to buy grain from Russia to help solve a global food crisis triggered by the invasion of Ukraine, the head of the African Union has told EU leaders.

Macky Sall, Senegal’s president, made the complaint by videoconference at an EU summit on Tuesday, the latest sign of concern in developing countries about the economic and humanitarian impact of the Ukraine war and the surge in energy and food prices that has been exacerbated by sanctions aimed at Moscow.

“Our countries are very worried about the collateral impact of the disruptions caused by blocking the Swift payment system as a result of sanctions,” Sall said. He was speaking after the EU endorsed a sixth package of sanctions that will curb 90 per cent of Russian oil imports to the EU and added Sberbank to the list of Russian banks excluded from the Swift messaging system for financial transfers.

“When the Swift system is disrupted, it means that even if produce exists, payment for it becomes difficult or even impossible,” Sall said. “I would like to insist that this question be examined as soon as possible by our relevant ministers to find suitable solutions.”

Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s biggest grain exporters, and about 20mn tonnes of wheat are stranded and awaiting shipment from the Black Sea port of Odesa because of a Russian naval blockade of the Ukrainian coast.

Faced with complaints by Sall and other African governments about the difficulties of importing grain and fertiliser from Russia, EU leaders have laid the blame squarely on Russian president Vladimir Putin while simultaneously trying to arrange the export of Ukrainian wheat stocks by sea or overland.

“The fact that there is a severe food crisis developing is only the fault of Russia’s unjustified war,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said at the conclusion of the summit, noting that there were no EU sanctions on Russian exports of food or fertiliser.

Olaf Scholz, German chancellor, said: “There are many stories that are a distraction from Russia’s war in Ukraine — we shouldn’t accept that.” Last week a senior French official said it was important to “deconstruct” the Russian narrative that it was the retaliatory sanctions rather than the invasion itself that lay behind the growing international food crisis.

But Scholz acknowledged that there were some issues with payments for fertilisers and an EU official said that there was a “glitch” in the sanctions regime given the difficulty of paying for produce that was not supposed to be affected by the EU’s measures against Moscow.

In much of Africa, the Ukraine war threatens not only to increase food prices but also to push the cost of fertiliser beyond the means of millions of farmers, threatening next year’s harvest. “Eastern African countries are fully dependent on fertiliser imports and the rising fertiliser costs are expected to have severe implications of food availability and prices,” the UN said.

A senior Ethiopian official has argued that the war in Ukraine and Swift sanctions on Russia — which make it hard to pay for Russian grain and fertilisers — are “bringing significant shocks” to the economies of east Africa, as inflation spiked.

President Emmanuel Macron of France, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said he hoped that in the coming days and weeks an agreement with Russia could be found for Ukrainian food exports, saying that recent talks between the Russian and Turkish presidents on the matter were a “positive sign”.

 

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interesting to see the state of things by 2030

 

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Putin’s Shadow Soldiers: How the Wagner Group Is Expanding in Africa (Published 2022)

Best known for its mercenaries, the Wagner Group also mines diamonds, spreads disinformation and props up autocrats in an effort to grow Russia’s footprint.

www.nytimes.com

Putin’s Shadow Soldiers: How the Wagner Group Is Expanding in Africa​

Best known for its mercenaries, the Wagner Group also mines diamonds, spreads disinformation and props up autocrats in an effort to grow Russia’s footprint.​

May 31, 2022

Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group standing guard in 2019 during a parade in Bangui, Central African Republic.Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times
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Mercenaries are enjoying a resurgence in Africa, hired to fight in some of the continent’s most intractable conflicts. Perhaps the most famous outfit is the Wagner Group, a nebulous network that combines military force with commercial and strategic interests, now at the vanguard of Russia’s expanding ambitions in Africa.
Wagner fighters have been active in the wars of Mali, Central African Republic, Mozambique and Libya. They ally with embattled leaders and militia commanders who can pay for their services in cash, or with lucrative mining concessions for precious minerals like gold, diamonds and uranium. Wagner troops have faced frequent accusations of torture, civilian killings and other abuses.
But Wagner is far more than a simple guns-for-gold scheme. Operating through a sprawling web of shell companies, it has become a byword for a broad spectrum of Kremlin-backed operations in over a dozen African countries. Wagner meddles in politics, props up autocrats and orchestrates digital propaganda campaigns. It donates food to the poor and produces action movies set in Africa. It has even organized a beauty pageant.
The Kremlin denies any link to Wagner. But American and European officials, as well as most experts, say it is an unofficial tool of Russian power — a cheap and deniable way for President Vladimir V. Putin to expand his reach, bolster his war chest against Western sanctions, and expand his influence on a continent where sympathy for Russia remains relatively high.

A photograph released by the French military showing Wagner operatives at the Mopti airport, in central Mali, in February. French Army, via Associated Press
“It’s a power play by Russia,” said Pauline Bax, deputy Africa director at the International Crisis Group. “Through Wagner, it wants to see to what extent it can spread its influence in Africa. I think the results have surprised a lot of people.”
Here’s a look at how Wagner has spread across Africa, and why its operations are increasingly important to Mr. Putin.

How Wagner Got Its Name, and Went to Africa​

Wagner emerged during Mr. Putin’s first assault on Ukraine in 2014, when its mercenaries fought alongside pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region. Its commander was Dmitry Utkin, a retired Russian Special Forces commander said to be fascinated by Nazi history and culture.
The group’s name, and Mr. Utkin’s military call sign, is taken from the composer Richard Wagner, Hitler’s favorite. Some of the group’s fighters share that ideology: Ancient Norse symbols favored by white extremists have been photographed on Wagner equipment in Africa and the Middle East.
Wagner expanded to Syria in 2015, tasked with bolstering President Bashar al-Assad and seizing oil and gas fields, American officials said. In 2016, Mr. Putin awarded Mr. Utkin with military honors at a banquet in the Kremlin. A year later, the United States imposed sanctions on Mr. Utkin for his activities with Wagner.
The group turned to Africa in 2017 under the apparent guidance of Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian tyc00n known as “Putin’s chef.”

Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2016.Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Like Mr. Putin, Mr. Prigozhin hails from St. Petersburg, where he once ran a hot-dog stall before setting up a catering business that prospered on lucrative Kremlin contracts. The United States indicted him in 2018 on accusations that he financed a Russian troll factory accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In Africa, Wagner began to advise tottering dictators, run social media disinformation campaigns and deploy teams of fake election monitors, according to Western officials, experts and United Nations investigators. Companies linked to Mr. Prigozhin operated gold and diamond mines.
Mr. Prigozhin denies any link to Wagner, and has even questioned the group’s existence. “The Wagner legend is just a legend,” he said in a written response to questions.
He may be technically correct: No longer a single company, Wagner has become the brand name for an unofficial Russian network spanning the continent, experts say.
Since 2016 the US. has imposed at least seven sets of sanctions on Mr. Prigozhin, his companies and his associates, singling out his yacht and three private jets. The European Union also sanctioned Mr. Prigozhin in 2020 over Wagner’s role in Libya, and on June 1 this year a top E.U. court rejected his legal challenge to those measures.
Facebook and Twitter have removed hundreds of fake accounts run by his associates. Russian investigative news outlets have documented his close ties to Mr. Putin and the Russian defense ministry.
That profile makes Mr. Prigozhin quite different from other Russian oligarchs who made their fortunes through Russian state privatizations in the 1990s, experts say.
“He’s not an independent businessman per se,” said Samuel Ramani of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based nonprofit, and the author of a forthcoming book on Russia in Africa. Independent research, he said, shows that, “his business interests are very tightly tied to what Wagner does, and he gets a cut by being a middleman in deals between African leaders and the Kremlin.”

Where Wagner Works​

One of Wagner’s earliest forays on the continent was a disaster.
In 2019 it deployed about 160 fighters to the gas-rich, Muslim-majority Cabo Delgado region, in northern Mozambique. But within weeks, rebels with a local Islamic State affiliate killed at least seven Wagner troops, American officials said. A few months later, the Russians pulled out.
Wagner appeared to learn from those mistakes in Central African Republic, where it arrived in 2018 to protect the besieged president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra. After training local security forces, it helped the army to repel a major Islamist offensive in early 2021.

President Faustin-Archange Touadéra of the Central African Republic greeting supporters in the capital, Bangui, in 2020. He employs Russian mercenaries, like one seen on the right, as his guards.Alexis Huguet/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
But those modest gains came at a high cost: United Nations investigators found that Wagner forces killed civilians, looted homes and shot worshipers at a mosque. Critics noted that the operation focused on regions where Mr. Prigozhin’s companies were mining for diamonds.
In Libya, Wagner fighters supported a failed assault on the capital, Tripoli, in 2019 by Khalifa Hifter, a power hungry commander. Thousands of Wagner fighters remain stationed at four bases across Libya, mostly near the country’s oil fields, Western officials and analysts say.
In Sudan, Wagner obtained gold mining concessions and tried, unsuccessfully, to save the country’s autocratic leader, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was toppled in April 2019.
Now Wagner’s main Sudanese partner is General Mohamed Hamdan, a powerful paramilitary commander who flew to Moscow on the eve of the war in Ukraine for meetings with senior Russian officials.

A photo released by the Sudanese presidency showing Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia and General Mohamed Hamdan in Moscow, on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.Sudan's Presidential Palace, via Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Perhaps Wagner’s most contentious operation is in Mali, where Wagner forces arrived in December 2021 amid what the U.S. State Department called “a barrage of targeted disinformation to hide its arrival and activities.” Its fighters quickly joined the fight against Islamist insurgents.

 

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What Is the Wagner Group?​

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A paramilitary group with ties to Russia. The Wagner Group is a private military force with close links to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. It gained prominence in recent months when its forces began appearing in Ukraine, presumably to fight alongside Russian troops.
How did Wagner get its start? Wagner operatives were first deployed during Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The U.S. government has said that the organization is financed by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and a close associate of Mr. Putin.
How did the group get its name? The group is reportedly named after the nom de guerre of its leader, Dmitry Utkin, a retired Russian military officer. Mr. Utkin is said to have chosen Wagner to honor the composer.
Where is the group based? The group is not registered as a legal entity anywhere in the world, and mercenaries remain illegal under Russian law. According to analysts, Wagner is a “proxy force” of Russia’s ministry of defense; its shadowy existence allows the Kremlin to play down its battlefield casualties and distance itself from atrocities committed by Wagner fighters.
Where do they recruit? Some of the fighters appeared to have been recruited from Syria and Libya, according to the Pentagon. Russia appears to have used mercenaries from those countries to bolster its troops in the east of Ukraine because of their experience fighting in the Donbas region for the past eight years.
Where have Wagner forces been deployed? Wagner operatives have fought in Syria, Libya, Central African Republic, Ukraine, Sudan, Mali and Mozambique. U.N. investigators and rights groups say these mercenary troops have targeted civilians, conducted mass executions and looted private property in conflict zones.
But by mid-April, Wagner had been involved in more than a dozen incidents in which nearly 500 people died, according to researchers and United Nations reports.

More Than Mercenaries​

In addition to providing hired guns, Russia has tried to shape the politics of at least a dozen African countries with social media and political influence campaigns.
Last year the U.S. treasury department identified what it called “a front company for Prigozhin’s influence operations in Africa” that it said had sponsored phony monitoring missions in Zimbabwe, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Mozambique.
In 2019, two Russians employed by Mr. Prigozhin met with a son of the former Libyan dictator, Muammar el-Qaddafi, only to get thrown in jail. A Prigozhin-linked company later made a movie about the Russians’ ordeal, portraying their captors as violent sadists. The detainees were released in December 2020.
“Russians don’t abandon their own!” said Mr. Prigozhin’s company, Concord, in a statement.
Since October 2019, Facebook has shut down over 300 fake Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to Mr. Prigozhin that it said targeted a dozen African countries.
Wagner fights through popular culture, too. In Central African Republic, Mr. Prigozhin’s companies sponsored a beauty contest, funded a radio station, and last year released a movie, “Touriste,” that glorified the actions of Wagner mercenaries in that country.
In December, another Prigozhin-financed movie aired on Russian TV, this time about Wagner’s bloody misadventures in Mozambique. Wagner maintains a discreet presence in that country: after its fighters withdrew in 2020, they left behind a small cyberwarfare cell that is employed by the Mozambique government, a Western security official in Africa said, citing European intelligence reports.

A visitor examines a Kalashnikov submachine gun during the Russia-Africa Economic Forum Exhibition on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum in the Black sea resort of Sochi in 2019.Pool photo by Sergei Chirikov

The Payoff for Putin​

Mr. Putin signaled his ambitions for Russia in Africa at a summit of African leaders in Sochi in 2019, when he described the continent as a place of “significant opportunities” for the Kremlin.
That expansion is part of Mr. Putin’s broader desire to re-establish Russia as a great power, analysts say, pitting him in part against China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other countries that have jockeyed for position in Africa as Western influence wanes.
Some African leaders are drawn to Moscow by weapons: Russia has become the largest arms supplier in Africa. But Mr. Putin is also tapping into deep historical and political currents.
Many African nations have been reluctant to join Western condemnation of Russia’s assault on Ukraine — some because of lingering Cold War sympathies, but many others out of frustration with what they see as Western disregard for Africa.
In West Africa, Russia is exploiting a growing wave of anti-French sentiment in countries like Mali, where the arrival of Wagner operatives led to a departure of French soldiers and diplomats this year. A military coup in Burkina Faso was welcomed by demonstrators waving Russian flags. And in Cameroon, officials signed a defense agreement with Russia in April that some saw as a possible precursor to a Wagner deployment.
A second Russia-Africa summit is scheduled for November. This time, the proposed venue is Mr. Putin’s home city of St. Petersburg — which also happens to be Mr. Prigozhin’s base of operations.

President Vladimir V. Putin and African leaders at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi in 2019.Pool photo by Sergei Chirikov
Elian Peltier contributed reporting from Dakar, Senegal.