President Vladimir Putin of Russia meets with Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia January 24, 2024.Photo courtesy
In early June, officials in N’Djamena signed a military agreement with Russia. Chad is the latest African government to question its long-standing security arrangements with France, its former colonizer. Chad’s engagement with President Vladimir Putin’s regime follows similar deals in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Central African Republic (CAR). Dozens of other African nations like Cameroon have also renewed military deals with Moscow, moving away from the West’s orbit. But how will African citizens benefit?
The advantage for Moscow is obvious: access to Africa’s vast natural resources at little cost, a strong military presence on the continent, and the added bonus of humbling France, Britain and the USA. With Ministry of Defense troops or private military contractors entrenched in Africa, Russia can flex its geopolitical muscles while making a profit.
In exchange, African rulers with a shaky hold on power get a personal protection force to keep them secure in their presidential palaces. Russians with guns are useful when leaders cannot depend on their own army: their power may not reach beyond the suburbs of the capital city; and their population may not regard the nation’s elite as legitimate because of farcical elections, limited freedom of speech, imprisoned political opposition, and poor schools, hospitals and infrastructure. Autocrats can rely on Russians to guard them and the wealth they have accumulated, legally or illegally.
But what do Africa’s citizens get from Moscow’s presence? In Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where French and American troops are no longer welcome, leaders claim Russian military companies are fighting jihadists. Offshoots of Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab are terrorizing large swathes of the Sahel, northern Nigeria, and northern Mozambique, among other areas, causing massive loss of life and disrupting society.
Yet, the evidence is that Russian forces are just as ineffective at tackling the fundamentalist Islamist insurgencies as they were in Afghanistan in the 1980s. In Mali, for instance, the UN reports that jihadists have doubled the territory they control since the Russians arrived. Moscow’s men behave so brutally that more local people are joining the jihadists – just like they did on Afghanistan.
In Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado region, the Wagner Group had to withdraw after being slaughtered by Al-Shabaab militants. The Rwandan army, as part of a regional response, was more successful. Meanwhile, the root causes of jihadist recruitment (corruption, poverty, climate change) are not addressed by African autocrats or their Russian guests.
In Syria, Moscow’s mercenaries were effective at protecting and enriching the regime’s elite, but not at fighting insurgents. In CAR, Russia was implicated in a 2021 massacre in Bambari investigated by the UN. In Libya, Wagner has only added to the chaos and civilian suffering.
In Sudan, where the world’s most devastating conflict is raging, the Wagner Group supplied weapons to the racist Rapid Support Forces (RSF) waging a campaign of ethnic elimination against Black Africans in Darfur. The RSF pays the Russians in gold which lets President Putin avoid sanctions imposed in retaliation for his invasion of Ukraine. Research shows $2.5 billion of African gold has gone to Moscow since February 2023. Yet, at the same time, Russia has this month agreed to build a military base in Port Sudan from which it is thought it will supply the RSF’s opponents, the Sudanese Armed Forces, with weapons. By helping both sides, the Russians are deliberately prolonging and fueling a catastrophic conflict in which ten million have fled their homes, unknown thousands have been killed, millions face starvation, and where sexual violence is systematic. How is this good for African citizens?
The building of a base in Port Sudan is entirely self-interested. Moscow wants a naval base on the Red Sea so it can menace world trade. If China blockades or invades Taiwan, Russia can jeopardize trade routes in support of Beijing, or to counter international pressure related to its invasion of Ukraine.
Beyond countries with a Russian military presence, other nations such as Cameroon are on Russia’s radar. Moscow’s private military contractor(s) reportedly use Douala and Kribi ports to import weapons bound for CAR, and to export CAR’s natural resources, including endangered tropical lumber and uranium for making nuclear weapons. A frail President Paul Biya, now age 91, was one of seventeen heads of state attending a Russia-Africa conference in St Petersburg in 2023, cementing his relationship with Putin. Russia wants a naval base on the Gulf of Guinea, with access to the Atlantic, and Yaoundé seems keen to oblige. How the people of Cameroon will benefit is not clear.
By embracing Russia, autocratic leaders copy Moscow in repressing free speech and civic society, while undermining institutions. Using a massive social media disinformation machine, Russia attacks the values that promote peace and prosperity for citizens. According to the African Centre for Strategic Studies (2024), Russia is the “primary purveyor of disinformation in Africa, sponsoring 80 documented campaigns, targeting more than 22 countries.” Most of all, Russian disinformation crushes the truth, and without the truth, Africans cannot be free.
Having cast off the poisonous influence of European colonists, Africa deserves to determine its own future in a democratic, pluralist, inclusive manner. While African elites may enjoy Russia’s “protection”, African youths want more freedoms, not fewer, and they are learning that Russia is not a friend.
