“Russia has imposed itself in the Sahel countries”
After the departure of French Sahel troops, Russia strengthened its military and media presence in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. But its establishment remains limited and struggles to respond to promises of stability.
- For more than three years, French troops are no longer welcome in the Sahel, especially in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Deployed in Mali in 2013 to contain the progress of jihadist groups, the French army then launched the Barkhane operation in order to extend its action to Burkina Faso and Niger. From 2020, the coup d’etat followed one another in these three countries. The new regimes break the links with Paris, in an anti-Western climate, amplified by Russian expansion of Russian propaganda. The Barkhane operation ended in November 2022.
- To begin with, The Russian presence is exercised in an opaque way, via Wagner, a group of mercenaries founded by Evgueni Prigojine. Author of an attempted coup against Vladimir Putin in June 2023, he died in an air crash two months later. Since then, the Kremlin has attached a new military group to the Ministry of Defense: the Africa Corps. To date, nearly 2,500 Russian paramilitaries are on mission in these three countries against 5,500 French soldiers at the height of the operation.
- Focusing on the security component To maintain the military junts in power, Russia cannot, for the time being, to bring stability, unlike its promises. In Mali, his troops have undergone twenty jihadist attacks this summer. “The offer of Russia is dependent on the situation and the fragility of these regimes,” notes Ibrahima Dabo, doctor of political science at Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University.
- Moscow takes advantage of the banishment of the French media To strengthen its presence in the field of information, via the television channel Russia Today and the Sputnik news agency. The country has also opened “Russian houses” to promote its language and culture, but which also serve it to exercise its lobbying.
- The countries of the Sahel, Rich in raw materials, seek to restore their sovereignty by nationalizing their mining operations. “Mali even refused Russian investments in gold mines,” said Nina Wilén, director of the Africa program at the Belgian Institute Egmont. Russia must also compose with the competition of even more powerful actors, in the forefront of which China. Its influence in the region is therefore to be qualified.
