Kremlin deploys propaganda outlets to whitewash Wagner’s footprints in the Sahel

The United States is discussingwith Niger the withdrawal of American troops from its soil, the U.S. Defense Department announced April 23. There is no timeline set for the exit and the U.S. will continue working with partners in the Sahel region to address the terrorism threat, Pentagon press secretary Maj. General Pat Ryder said.

Since taking power in a July 2020 coup, Niger’s junta has been resolute in breaking ties with the Western allies, first terminating two military contracts with the European Union followed by the expulsion of the French troops, and now shifting away from its longtime traditional ally, the United States.

“As yet another major player in the Sahel succumbs to military rule and Russian influence, Niger’s actions signal a profound geopolitical transformation, potentially reshaping the balance of power and stability in West Africa,” reported Defense One analyst Aja Melville on Tuesday, April 23.

Embracing Russia is convenient for the junta. Unlike Western allies, Moscow does not condition partnership and military aid on ethical and political stipulations, Melville wrote.

A week earlier, the first deployment of the Russian defense ministry’s African Corps, a remake of the notorious Wagner Group, arrived in Niger to install a Russian-made air defense system and train the junta’s troops, state broadcaster Tele Sahel reported.

To expand its influence in the African region, Russia has launched a complex of diplomatic, economic, and military initiatives, from hosting annual African forums under President Vladimir Putin’s patronage to funding a massive propaganda campaign to whitewash Russia’s image from the stain of violence and corruption left by Wagner troops.

Instrumental in spreading disinformation on the African continent is Russia’s state-owned multilingual news agency Sputnik, which on April 13 featured an interview with a Beninese analyst Suleiman Azmat, who praised Niger’s transition towards Russia.

Polygraph.info researched the analyst’s background but could not verify his association with any think-tanks or institutions in Benin.

‘’Unlike Western troops which were always often on the opposite side of the fighting in the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Russian troops have helped various states to regain the territory,’’ Azmat said.

Those claims are false.

The United States invested in strengthening security of the Sahel region more than $3.3 billion over the last two decades. This does not include humanitarian, medical, and economic aid. Between 2001 and 2020 the U.S. trained at least 86,000 counterterrorism troops in the region, including nearly 18,000 in Niger.

Before the July 2023 coup, the U.S. maintained a significant military presence in Niger in agreement with the Nigerien government. Two U.S. military bases, the Air Base 101 and the $100 million Air Base 201 are hosting some 1,100 personnel. Both are strategically located to enable American forces to use drones in counterterrorism operations against the local branches of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State across West Africa.

Before being expelled from Mali in 2023, France’s 5,100-strong military mission to root out violent jihadists in the Sahel acted as part of Operation Barkhane, which helped killing Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahrawi, head of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara.

France’s withdrawal from Mali left a bitter aftertaste when the bases it once occupied were taken over by Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group.

Contrary to Sputnik’s analysis, Russian impact in the Sahel has been far from positive and Azmat’s assertions echo Kremlin narratives. Russian officials refer to Wagner Group as “Russian instructors” who have “saved” the African countries and are further “strengthening peace and stability.”

Russia created a ‘’disinformation and propaganda ecosystem’’ to falsely portray Wagner as “playing a positive role’’ in the Sahel, the U.S. State department said on February 8.

Wagner Group activities in the African countries are tainted with corruption, violence and war crimes.

In one such well-documented instance in Central African Republic, Wagner forces “used indiscriminate killing, abductions and rape to gain control of a key mining area near the city of Bambari, with survivors describing the attacks in detail.”

Following the 2021 military coup in Mali, Wagner Group deployed 400 mercenaries reinforced with L-39 jets, Sukhoi-25 fighters, and Mi-24P helicopter gunships, supposedly to fight local jihadists.

A year after Russia’s arrival, the situation in Mali worsened, with at least 2,000 civilians killed in surging violent attacks, The Associated Press reported, citing data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Wagner Group personnel were involved in a significant number of civilian deaths and casualties, the report said.

After the arrival of the Russian troops, “…the Islamic State extremists have almost doubled the territory they control in Mali in less than a year,” the United Nations panel of experts concluded on August 3, 2023

Human Rights Watch alerted in its 2024 report that the human rights situation in Mali “significantly deteriorated during 2023, as attacks against civilians by Islamist armed groups … and large-scale abusive counterterrorism operations by Malian armed forces and associated foreign fighters surged.”

In Burkina Faso, the Russian Africa Corps, Wagner’s rebranded incarnation, has been expanding its presence since January, with arms shipments and some 400 troops arriving to supposedly help restore security and peace.

Violence, however, has continued to escalate, with more than two million people displaced, and health and education systems crippled.

“In Burkina Faso in 2023, deaths from terrorism were up 68 percent’’ the Global Terrorism Index said in its 2024 report, produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

The GTI also reported that the epicenter of global terrorism has shifted out of the Middle East and into the Central Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, which now accounts for over half of all deaths from terrorism.

‘’The Sahel is the most impacted region, representing 43% of global terrorism deaths, 7% more than the year prior,’’ GTI said.