Prospect of Wagner’s Growing Influence in Africa Worries Western Powers

At the recently-concluded US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington,
DC, the President of Ghana, Mr Nana Akufo-Addo, made a genuine claim
about neighbouring Burkina Faso during the panel discussions on Peace,
Security and Governance in Washington.

Speaking
about the growing violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State
group in the west African region, Mr Akufo-Addo alleged that Burkina
Faso allocated a mine to the Wagner Group as a form of payment for its
deployment of fighters in the country.

“To have
(Wagner) operating on our northern border is particularly distressing
for us in Ghana,” a former Chairman of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) and Ghanaian leader Nana Akufo-Addo informed at
the summit.

“Today, Russian mercenaries are on our
northern border. Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go
along with Mali in employing the Wagner forces there,” he said, adding
that Burkina Faso had ceded a mine, reportedly with gold reserves, near
the border with Ghana in exchange for the group’s services to deal with
the militant insurgency that began in 2015. In recent weeks, hundreds of
people fleeing militants attacks in Burkina Faso have crossed the
border into northern Ghana.

Burkina Faso has
summoned the Ghanaian ambassador for ‘explanations’ after Ghana’s
president alleged that Burkina Faso had hired the Russian mercenary
group, Wagner, according to reports from Burkina’s Foreign Ministry.
Burkina Faso has further recalled its ambassador from Ghana for a
meeting, a spokesperson at the ministry told Reuters.

Nana
Akufo-Addo’s comments came on the heels of a trip to Moscow by Burkina
Faso’s Prime Minister, Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, to further
strengthen Russia-Burkina relations.

The visit
was planned to “consolidate the international community’s efforts in
combating the terrorist threat” in the region, said a statement made
available on the official website by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.

Earlier this month, a new mining
concession was given to Nordgold, a Russian mining company which has
been operating in Burkina Faso for more than a decade. A permit for
industrial exploration was granted to the Nordgold Yimiougou SA company
in Sanmatenga province, said a statement from Burkina Faso’s Council of
Ministers.

The four-year agreement is estimated to
contribute some $8 billion (£6.5bn) to the state budget. Burkina Faso
is one of the largest gold producers on the continent. Nordgold and the
Wagner Group are Russian companies, although there is no known
connection between them.

For several years Burkina
Faso has been struggling to stem jihadi violence that has killed
thousands, displaced nearly two million people and made swaths of land
inaccessible. Lack of faith in the Burkina Faso government’s ability to
contain the jihadi insurgency has led to two coups this 2022.

After
the latest coup in September, the Wagner Group was among the first to
congratulate the new junta leader, Ibrahim Traore, raising questions
about his relationship with Russia and how big a role it played in
catapulting him to power. People with close ties to Burkina Faso’s
ruling junta said pressure had been mounting on the leader of the first
coup, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, for months to work
more closely with Russia, but he had refused.

Reacting
to this issue, Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Anne-Claire Legendre,
told a news conference that Paris and its European partners continued to
be available to cooperate with Burkinabe authorities if they wished and
without ambiguity in what she described as a worsening security and
humanitarian situation.

“With regard to Wagner,
our message is well known; Wagner has distinguished itself in Africa by a
policy of plundering, which harms the sovereignty of states,” she said,
Reuters reported from Paris. “The Wagner militia has distinguished
itself, particularly in Mozambique, the Central African Republic, and
Mali; this is obviously known to the Burkinabè authorities.”

The
Western nations believe that the presence of Wagner in Africa was
harmful as the group exploits mineral resources and commits human rights
abuses in countries where it operates.

The pace
of Islamic extremist violence is increasing in Burkina Faso and getting
closer to the capital, Ouagadougou, which could make the desperate junta
welcome support from the Russian mercenaries, said Laith Alkhouri, CEO
of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory. “This could have significant
negative implications for Burkina Faso and the region,” he said. “Wagner
mercenaries have operated with impunity, and they are unlikely to be
held accountable for any human rights violations.”

Most leading global media, including Associated
Press (AP), Cable News Network (CNN), Agence France-Presse (AFP),
British Broadcasting (BBC), Voice of America (VOA), Reuters, Al Jazeera
and many others, well-noted for their comprehensive and verified
coverage of geopolitical changes and developments shaping or affecting
daily lives in the world, have also informed the public about Wagner
Group being hired or deployed in Burkina Faso.

In
all the reports, the main message concerns the indelible fact Burkina
Faso contracts shadowy Russian mercenaries to fight against jihadist
insurgency. Across the Sahel region, neighbours feared the jihadist
insurgency might spread further down from Burkina Faso to coastal
neighbours, including Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin. Nigeria is
already consistently fighting Boko Haram and other militant groups.

Associated
Press reporter Sam Mednick from Dakar, Senegal, with his colleague
Elise Morton from London, wrote in their joint news report that Burkina
Faso residents expressed scepticism at the Ghanaian president’s comments
and said the junta was trying to diversify partnerships.

“We
have the capacity to defend ourselves without outside help if we have
the required equipment. Burkina Faso collaborates with states, not with
mercenaries,” said Mamadou Drabo, Executive Secretary for Save Burkina, a
civil society group that supports the junta.

Edward
Lozansky, President of the American University in Moscow and professor
of World Politics at Moscow State University, wrote in an email
interview that “there has not been too much information about Russia’s
activities in Africa, but the Western media is saturated with the scary
stories about Russia’s efforts to bolster its presence in at least 14
countries across Africa by building relations with existing rulers,
striking military deals, and grooming a new generation of leaders and
undercover agents.”

Further to the narratives,
Russia has now embarked on fighting “neo-colonialism,” which it
considers a stumbling block on its way to regaining a part of the
Soviet-era multifaceted influence in Africa. Russia has sought to
convince Africans over the past years of the likely dangers of
neo-colonial tendencies perpetrated by the former colonial countries and
the scramble for resources on the continent. But all such warnings
largely seem to fall on deaf ears as African leaders choose development
partners with funds to invest in the economy.

Vedomosti, a Russian daily Financial and Business newspaper,
reported that Russia is interested in offering Sahel countries military
equipment in exchange for exploiting the untapped minerals resources.
Worth noting here that Russia, in its strategy on Africa, is reported to
be looking into building military bases on the continent.

In
late October, President Vladimir Putin participated in the final
plenary session of the 19th meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, the
focus was on matters related to the changing geopolitics, the new world
order and its future developments. He discussed, at considerable length,
so many controversial questions.

According to
him, Russia still has friends around the world and mentioned that in
central America and Africa, the ‘Russian flags’ are flying everywhere.
Putin, along the line, argued that the support for multipolar order
largely exists in the Global South, appreciated Africa’s struggle for
independence and now rising against growing neo-colonialism. Russia has
good relations with African countries, these absolutely unique relations
were forged during the years when the Soviet Union and Russia supported
African countries in their fight for freedom.

Despite
these widely published allegations about Burkina Faso, Russia has
demonstrated wide interest in making drastic steps toward penetrating
the G5 Sahel in West Africa. The G5 Sahel are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali,
Mauritania and Niger. Russia is broadening its geography of military
diplomacy covering poor African countries and especially fragile States
that need Russia’s military assistance.

Russian
Foreign Ministry has oftentimes explained in statements released on its
website that Russia’s military-technical cooperation with African
countries is primarily directed at settling regional conflicts and
preventing the spread of terrorist threats, and fighting the growing
terrorism in the continent.

Over the past several
years, strengthening military-technical cooperation has been a key part
of the foreign policy of the Russian Federation. Russia has signed a
bilateral military-technical cooperation agreement with 14 African
countries. Some reports, however, say more than 20 African  countries.

The South African Journal of International Affairs has
published a special report on Russia-Africa. It said, in part, heading
into the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg (unless the proposed
date and venue change, again), Russia looks more like a ‘virtual great
power’ than a genuine challenger to European, American and Chinese
influence.

The report titled – Russia’s Private Military Diplomacy in Africa: High Risk, Low Reward, Limited Impact –
says that Russia’s renewed interest in Africa is driven by its quest
for global power status. Few expect Russia’s security engagement to
bring peace and development to countries with which it has security
partnerships.

While Moscow’s opportunistic use of
private military diplomacy has allowed it to gain a strategic foothold
in partner countries successfully, the lack of transparency in
interactions, the limited scope of impact and the high financial and
diplomatic costs exposes the limitations of the partnership in
addressing the peace and development challenges of African host
countries, the report says.

The report authored by
Ovigwe Eguegu, a Beijing-based Nigerian Researcher on Politics and
International Affairs, focused on the use of private military companies
to carry out ‘military diplomacy’ in African states, and the main
research questions were: What impact is Russia’s private military
diplomacy in Africa having on host countries’ peace and development? Why
has Russia chosen military diplomacy as the preferred means to gain a
foothold on the continent?

His report was based on more than 80 media publications dealing with Russia’s military-technical cooperation in
Africa. He interrogates whether fragile African states advance their
security, diplomatic and economic interests through a relationship with
Russia.

Overcoming the multidimensional problems facing Libya, Sudan, Somali, Mali, and the Central African Republic will require
comprehensive peace and development strategies that include conflict
resolution and peacebuilding, state-building, security sector reform,
and profound political reforms to improve governance and the rule of law
– not to mention sound economic planning critical for attracting
foreign direct investment needed to spur economic growth.

The
United Nations (UN), The African Union (AU), the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) and the entire international community have
expressed collective concerns about any use of private mercenary
forces, instead strongly suggested the use of well-constituted regional forces approved by regional blocs, as a means to address conflicts in Africa.

The
G5 Sahel are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. And
Burkina Faso, per well-known geographical description, is a landlocked
country in West Africa with an area of 274,200 km2, bordered by Mali to
the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and
Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest.