North Korean army sends troops to Russia... Russian mercenary Wagner develops base in Africa?

As North Korea’s military is dispatched to Russia, attention is also being paid to the problem of Russia’s troop shortage, which is known to have already caused 700,000 casualties in the Ukraine war. Meanwhile, reports have emerged that the Wagner Group, a Russian private mercenary company that once had 50,000 combatants and was infamous on the eastern front in Ukraine, is recently expanding its activities in Africa again.

Recently, the British current affairs weekly The Economist reported that the Wagner Group is developing a base in the Central African Republic (CAR) that will accommodate 10,000 troops by 2030 and serve as a hub for Russian military operations in Africa.

The media reported that beyond military activities, the Wagner Group is also playing a diplomatic role, such as participating in negotiations to reopen roads to neighboring Chad and helping to create a joint force to patrol the border. Regarding this, Zedrej Cherep, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Studies, said, “It is like a second life for the Wagner Group.”

In the past, Russia used the Wagner Group to increase its influence in Africa. However, after Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin attempted an armed rebellion in June last year and died in a private plane crash two months later, there were predictions that the group would take steps to disband.

In fact, the Russian government attempted to replace the Wagner Group’s African branch with the ‘African Legion’ until the end of last year. The Afrika Korps is a new umbrella organization for several parastatal expeditionary forces under the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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“Russia, tied to Ukraine, limited in suppressing Wagner.”

However, ‘restructuring’ was limited. The Economist reported, “The Russian regular army was tied up in Ukraine, so there were limits to suppressing the (Wagner Group).”

In fact, as of last year, Wagner had entered 12 African countries, including Mali and Libya. In particular, CAR maintains access to gold and diamond mines. It is a reward for entering CAR in 2018 to protect the government and helping defeat a rebel coalition opposing the president’s re-election in 2021.

Western countries also tried to drive out the Wagner Group, but 1,500 to 2,000 Wagner members were scattered throughout the country. The CAR government rejected an offer from an American private security company to provide security support on behalf of the Wagner Group.

However, the Wagner Group is experiencing difficulties in other African countries. Last July, at the request of the Malian government, the country suffered a crushing defeat, with dozens of people killed while fighting rebels. At the time, Ukrainian military intelligence said it had provided Malian rebels with information that could help them win. This is because, “For Russia, the African countries where the Wagner Group is located are areas where gold, diamonds, gas, and oil can be secured, and the money is used to finance Russia’s invasion.”

The Wagner Group is still present in the Ukraine war. Russian media reported that Wagner Group has been deployed one after another to the Kursk battlefield since the Ukrainian army began its attack on the Russian mainland in August.

Meanwhile, the Russian government recently appears to be trying to approach Africa in a different way than in the past. Last month, the Russian space agency signed contracts with Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to deploy communications and remote sensing satellites. Last year, Russia’s state-owned nuclear company also signed a contract with Burkina Faso to build a power plant. They are building a solar power plant in Mali and seeking rights to a uranium mine in Niger.

But the Economist said, “The mercenary model remains effective in Africa’s most vulnerable regions,” adding, “Hotels and shopping malls in CAR’s capital are filled with burly Russian men, and a monument to Wagner’s troops who died in the line of duty has been erected in the city center.” He said.