Wagner`s destabilising influence in Africa

BYADEOLA MUSA

Adeola Musa, a writer based in Kano, contributed this piece via email

The ongoing internal war raging in Sudan, in which accusing fingers are pointing to the contributory role of Russia`s Wagner Mercenary Group, is a strong  indication of the illusion in the thinking of some African leaders, who believe that the group represents a credible alternative security option for their countries.

What is deductible from the unfolding reality in Africa today, is that Russia`s commercial proposal of Wagner, as an alternative security arrangement for Africa, is an open invitation for more trouble for the continent.

Apart from what is happening in Sudan now, another clear example of what could be best described as a no-solution-in-Wagner option, is what is also currently happening in the West African State of Mali, where security has continued to deteriorate since the arrival of Wagner in that country.

Recent reports obtained from the Human Rights Division of MINUSMA, indicate that the number of displaced persons resulting from activities of terrorist groups in Mali, as of September 2022, stood at over 422,620 persons, the highest since the outbreak of armed conflict in the country in 2012.

According to MINUSMA, the number of civilians killed as a result of terrorist activities in the country has also increased exponentially. The number of the killings includes operatives of the Malian armed forces and foreign military personnel.

Rather than ending the raging armed conflict in the country, the MINUSMA report indicates that the presence of Wagner has provided the terrorist elements operating in the country free movement, as it was unable to impede the offensive of IS-S (Islamic State-Sahel) in the north of the country or deter the movement of elements of the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) that are active in the south of the country.

The report further revealed that the presence of Wagner, has fueled an unprecedented increase in human rights violations, and extra-judicial attacks attributable to the personnel of the group among the displaced persons. The ineffective operations mounted by the group have enabled terrorist groups’ activity in the Menaka region, which before now was on the verge of being eliminated.

Presently the brutal and unprofessional operational tactic Wagner adopted in the fight against Daesh, has enabled JNIM to position itself insidiously as an actor that is supposedly acting to the benefit of the civilian population, a development that is earning the group the sympathy of the local people where the group is active. 

Wagner’s inability to conceive a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy to curtail the activities of these terrorist groups, in addition to the general lack of a clear-cut socio-economic action plan by the Military Junta regime in the country, has been making it easy for the recruitment of fighters by the terrorist groups in the country.

This obvious ineffectiveness of Wagner was what was responsible for the quick exit of the group from Mozambique, another African country, where it was involved in counter-terrorism operations. Apart from being ineffective in fighting terrorist groups, Wagner is also known to be stoking communal violence, thereby aggravating insecurity among the local populations.

Also, in Mali, it has been documented by human rights organisations, such as GO ACLED and Human Rights Watch, about instances in which Wagner`s personnel knowingly and coldly killed civilians in retaliatory operations (e.g., in markets).

For example, more than 300 Malians were alleged  to have been summarily, and coldly executed by Wagner`s personnel in Moura in March 2022, on the grounds of belonging to one of the ethnic tribes in the country.  The report has it that before their execution, the victims were forced to dig their graves. In addition, another set of people identified to be of the Fulani ethnic group were killed in the same manner, in Hamburg, Sofara, Diabaly and Dogofry.

The scale and nature of the abuses – murders, rapes, sexual violence, illegal arrests, mutilations – carried out in torture camps operated by Wagner in Mali since its arrival, are too numerous to mention. One only hopes that the United Nations (UN) would, in the nearest future, come out with a detailed investigation of the activity of the group in that country.

Since Wagner came into CAR at the instance of the current government, the group has continued to deny members of the military community medical support, a situation that has contributed tremendously to the degradation of the socio-economic environment of the military personnel, and their households.

The presence of mercenaries in the group has also been identified to be a very strong factor that was contributing to cross-border conflict in the central Africa horn; the mercenaries are known to have accompanied personnel of CAR armed forces, in an incursion into the neighbouring country of Chad.

In one of the incursions, which occurred specifically in May and August 2021, six Chadian soldiers were killed (five executed summarily) by the invading soldiers of the CAR, and the Wagner`s mercenaries, a development that permanently tarnished the relations between Chad and CAR.

One of the strategies adopted by Wagner to entrench its presence was the cultivation of a culture of dependency on the authorities by the people in the areas where it is operating, as it is noted that the group usually isolates local leaders who are opposed to its presence, and provide no benefit to the local populations of the area. Wagner was also known to deploy a disinformation strategy as a tool for creating disharmony among the people, as well as providing close protection for leaders of the areas that are in support of its presence.

The brutality and rights violations that characterised the operations of the group are a product of the fact that the mercenaries of the group are not trained soldiers, but men who are often old, inexperienced, violent, sometimes drugged and mostly recruited from Russian prisons, who have their sentences negotiated, for them to fight for the group.

Wagner is known to compromise the sovereignty of the States that use it, as it is well documented that when it enters a country, its mercenaries usually substitute the state over the prerogatives of sovereignty, and they do not respect the command control of local army but only respect the hierarchical chain of the group.

As a matter of standing practices, mercenaries of the group do not subject themselves to the control of local army command, and more than half of the human rights abuses which include, the death of more than 400 persons,  recorded in the second quarter of this year, were committed by government forces, supported by Wagner.

Wagner’s presence in CAR has been cited as the cause of the escalating tension in the local armed forces, which is due primarily to the sharing of available scarce resources of the Force with the mercenaries of the group, and the mounting cases of racist violence being meted out by the mercenaries on local army soldiers. For example, two soldiers recorded to have been killed by the mercenaries in September 2022, in the country.