Russian mercenaries replace US troops as jihadist attacks in the Sahel increase

Analysts say the withdrawal of American and European troops from African Sahel countries and their replacement with Russian mercenaries has led to a surge in jihadist terrorism.

The Sahel is a belt of countries stretching west to east across the continent just below the Sahara Desert. A total of 3,885 deaths, or approximately 51% of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide in 2024, took place in the Sahel, according to the Global Terrorism Index.

In at least three Sahel states – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – military juntas that came to power following coups, notably in Niger and Mali, have expelled Western military forces. Last year, after 11 years in the country, the United States was asked to suspend counterterrorism drone operations from two bases in Niger. In Mali, French forces were expelled in 2022 after fighting Islamist terrorist groups for nine years.

Governments have turned to the Kremlin’s private mercenary army, the Africa Corps, formerly known as the Wagner Group, for protection. But the Russians would be more interested in extracting minerals than in fighting the spread of jihadism.

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Supporters of Niger’s National Council for the Protection of the Fatherland (CNSP) wave a Russian flag (right) and a Chinese flag (left) as they gather at Place de la Concertation in Niamey on August 20, 2023. (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Ordinary citizens often bear the brunt of jihadist attacks in the Sahel. Last month, armed Islamists on motorbikes reportedly killed 22 people in an attack on the village of Tillaberi in western Niger. Fifteen of the deaths were families attending a child’s naming ceremony, according to reports. In January, in northern Mali, Russian mercenaries reportedly joined government forces to execute 10 civilians, including a 2-year-old boy.

In the Sahel, “groups affiliated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda continue their territorial and strategic advance,” the Observer Research Foundation reported in August, “taking advantage of governance gaps and weak security forces to push into coastal West African states like Benin and Togo.”

“The situation in the Sahel, particularly Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, has deteriorated rapidly since the United States and France withdrew from those countries following the coups,” Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told Fox News Digital.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi shake hands during a family photo session during the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, July 28, 2023. ((Alexei Danichev, Sputnik, Kremlin swimming pool photo via AP))

Roggio, also editor of FDD’s Long War Journal, added: “The reality is that the situation was bad before the United States and the French left the region, but the withdrawal of American and French forces has exacerbated jihadist advances. »

“Al-Qaeda’s branch in the region, JNIM (Jama’a Nusrat Al-Islam wa al-Muslimin, linked to Al-Qaeda) and the Islamic State have made progress and control significant enclaves in the countries… The juntas of these three countries wanted the West to withdraw and turned to Russia to provide security through Wagner, which is now ironically called the Corps African.”

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A Boko Haram flag flies over an abandoned command post in Gamboru, deserted after Chadian troops chased them from the border town on February 4, 2015. (Stéphane Yas/AFP via Getty Images)

“Russian forces have little incentive to improve security and focus on securing mineral resources for profit,” Roggio added. “This further fuels jihadist insurgencies, which prey on civilians caught between jihadists and weak, or in some cases non-existent, governments. There’s not much the U.S. can do right now because those governments are anti-Western and don’t want a return of U.S. and French forces. And I’m not sure either country has the political will or desire to to come back.”

Regarding the situation in Niger, Frans Cronje told Fox News Digital that “during the period leading up to the 2023 coup, a very sophisticated political and media campaign was waged to poison public opinion against Western influence in Niger, often using the kind of anti-colonial tropes that have become popular as part of woke culture in the West. »

Mercenaries of the Russian Wagner Group in Mali, Africa. (East2West)

Cronje continued: “French and American stabilization efforts have been characterized as imperialist interference and worse. This came on top of the fact that French and American troops were already under severe strain in the fight against a jihadist insurgency that threatened the civilian population. It could be argued that even without the coup, the Western position was untenable, short of committing ever greater volumes of arms and munitions to a war far away from Paris and Washington.

Cronje agrees with Roggio’s assessment of the Kremlin’s position: “Russian forces have now filled the void left by the French and Americans, but Russia’s goal is to secure resource supply chains, not civilians.” »

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Wagner mercenaries in Mali, December 2023. (East2West)

He concluded: “It is difficult to say whether this situation could have been avoided. The only way to achieve this would have been to carry out political and media operations to build popular support for Western actors, then install a pro-Western administration and, beyond that, significantly increase Western military resources, including troops, deployed in Niger. All of this is a bridge too far for Western actors – and, in many ways, that’s understandable.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital: “The United States has engaged with Sahel countries using a pragmatic approach that focuses on advancing our foreign policy priorities. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Will Stevens’ recent visits to the region strengthened the U.S. government’s work with host country officials to advance U.S. business opportunities and engage on strategic counterterrorism priorities to mitigate threats to U.S. personnel and interests.