Russia's African Corps Failed In Its Mission After Prigozhin's Death
2- 29.09.2025, 19:04
- 4,870
The juntas in central Africa began to look to the Americans and French for help again.
Evgeny Prigozhin turned out to be a more "effective manager" in the organization of armed formations in Africa than the Russian Ministry of Defense. Created by the agency instead of PMC "Wagner" African Corps has failed a number of military missions and is mainly engaged only in training of local units, as well as lost a number of businesses, including gold mines. It's gotten to the point where juntas in central Africa are once again turning to the Americans and French they kicked out for security assistance, writes The Moscow Times.
Russian influence in Sahel states bordering the Sahara, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR) is waning, writes The Wall Street Journal. After the Prigozhin-led Wagnerians became a formidable force in the region thanks in part to their brutality, Russia's actions there in recent years have contributed to a deteriorating security situation, say experts, Western military and defense officials the newspaper spoke to. According to the African Center for Strategic Studies, Islamist rebels in the Sahel have killed nearly 11,000 people in the past year, with about half killed in fighting.
Military juntas in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which have kicked out American and French troops over the past three years and accepted military aid from Moscow, including to fight al-Qaida and the Islamic State, are experiencing a "frustration syndrome," says a senior U.S. military official. In his words, "they are starting to ask for help - especially the Malians." Russia's problems in Africa indicate the limits of its influence, especially when its best military units are fighting in Ukraine, European security officials say.
Security
About 1,000 Wagnerians first arrived in Mali in late 2021 and began receiving $10 million a month for helping fight Islamists. While their actions seemed effective at first, they ended up laying the groundwork for Russia's fiasco themselves, an investigation published in August by Sentry, a group founded by actor George Clooney and fighters against illicit financial transactions and corruption, showed. Thus, uncoordinated and brutal mercenary raids on civilian settlements "created chaos and fear in the Malian military hierarchy," forcing informants to refrain from cooperating and creating opportunities for jihadist recruitment, the investigation said.
The Wagnerians left the country in June. Justyna Gudzowska, Sentry's executive director, said:
"Wagner's failures in Mali should serve as a warning to other regimes across Africa that Russia is neither a reliable partner nor a quick solution to your problems."
The Defense Ministry's African Corps replaced the PMC mercenaries, but just over a week later a convoy made up of its fighters and Malian soldiers was ambushed. About half of the 40 armored vehicles were destroyed and dozens of fighters were killed, according to European officials.
No Business
Making money by exploiting local resources and contracting with the authorities was one of the Wagnerites' main goals. But in the same Mali, they never started developing a large gold mine because they could not secure it. "The Wagnerians appear to have been unpaid for months and have been unable to access attractive natural resources," the Sentry report said. The deployment of Russian mercenaries to Mali has not been "a worthwhile investment for either side," its authors conclude.
In Sudan, where civil war is raging, Wagner under Prigozhin mined gold in partnership with rebel leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whom the US accuses of genocide. When Prigozhin was killed in August 2023, Moscow, according to local activists and residents, sent new fighters to guard the mines and ensure their protection with anti-aircraft installations around them.
The effort failed. Local residents said the militants blocked fuel supplies, staged seizures and prevented workers from reaching the mines. The mine was repeatedly struck by Sudanese government aircraft, and the Russian military eventually withdrew in May.
The Wagnerites have established a vast business, from gold mining to presidential security, in the Central African Republic, from where they have spread their influence to other countries on the continent. European officials say Moscow is demanding that President Faustin-Arkange Touadér replace mercenary arrangements with contracts with the African Corps. Touadér himself told the Financial Times recently that Russia, along with Rwanda, helped "protect democracy and the people" of CAR when they repelled a rebel offensive during the instability surrounding the 2020 elections.
But Touadér is reluctant to admit that his country is dependent on Russia. "We welcome anyone who wants to cooperate with us," he said, mentioning plans to sell licenses to mine lithium, uranium, diamonds, gold and build a railroad.
Moscow has so far failed to replace the Wagnerians in CAR, where there are about 1,500 of them, with the African Corps, Samuel Ramani of the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies (RUSI) told the FT:
"He [Touadera] is trying to shrug off the idea that CAR has sold its sovereignty to Russia."
No military contracts
The new Russian contractors that have appeared in the CAR are mostly sitting in barracks and training the local army, European security officials told the WSJ. But the commander of French forces in Africa, Maj. Gen. Pascal Ianni, visited the country in July to discuss the resumption of military training. After that, according to the French embassy, members of the CAR security forces went to France for training.
In Burkina Faso, according to European sources, a small contingent of the African Corps is training the local military to operate drones and protect junta leader Ibrahim Traoré. But the latter, despite meetings with Vladimir Putin, has made it clear: the junta wants the Russian presence to remain small.
In May 2024, a detachment of 300 fighters arrived in Burkina Faso, but three months later they were recalled to the war in Ukraine.
Other countries with a Russian presence are trying to restore previous ties.
In Niger, after a coup in 2023, the new government expelled French and U.S. counterterrorism units and accepted Russian military trainers. But recently, Eric Prince, a U.S. defense contractor with ties to Donald Trump, visited the capital and offered counterterrorism services, several people with knowledge of the matter told the WSJ.
In July, Rudolph Atallah, a Trump administration counterterrorism adviser, visited Mali to offer U.S. assistance.
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