With Wagner Group’s presence in #Mali, #Russia has continued to make inroads across the Sahel, particularly in Mali’s southwestern neighbor Burkina Faso. In the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Libya and now Mali, Russian military contractors have operated on the ground alongside local forces. Some African nations, including a handful of states in West Africa, have conspicuously backed Russia at the United Nations and in other forums as Moscow ducks international censure for its invasion and ongoing war in Ukraine. “Pro-Russian networks today are especially targeting West and Central African nations grappling with conflict,” my colleague Danielle Paquette reported earlier this year. “Among them are Burkina Faso and Mali, which both face fast-growing insurgencies and have endured a combined three” — now, four — “coups d'état since 2020.

Source: Libya Today October 24, 2022 09:11 UTC