Russia is expanding its influence in West Africa through Africa Corps, a state-backed paramilitary group created after Wagner Group’s collapse in 2023, explains Hanna Notte for War on the Rocks. With deployments in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and growing interest in Benin and Togo, Africa Corps aims to secure strategic ports, natural resources, and political influence under a low-risk, long-term strategy. This effort is part of a broader anti-Western, “sovereignty” narrative linking Africa to Russia’s global ambitions. Notte urges Western policymakers to respond with a coordinated, civilian-led strategy before Russia further entrenches itself on NATO’s southern flank. She writes:

What if Moscow’s most dangerous moves right now aren’t in Europe, but along the Gulf of Guinea?

With its resources sunk deep into Ukraine, the Russian military has weighed carefully whether and when to engage elsewhere, standing aside amid recent conflicts in the South Caucasus and Middle East. An exception to this pattern of inaction is in West Africa. After the failed mutiny of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in June 2023, the Russian government established a new paramilitary group called Africa Corps, tethered closely to the military chain of command. The unit then progressively took over most of Wagner’s operations in Africa and expanded into Burkina Faso and Niger. It now seems to be eyeing a presence in Benin and Togo next. These activities suggest that Russia is seeking a West African foothold on which to build once an end to the war on Ukraine frees up additional conventional military forces. Russia may then try to further extend Africa Corps’ presence. […]

Enter Africa Corps

Since its emergence two years ago, Africa Corps has shown a particular interest in the Sahel, a region swept by military coups and a wave of anti-French sentiment. In Mali, it operated alongside Wagner even after Prigozhin’s death. Wagner’s disastrous push into separatist territory at Tinzaouaten in July 2024, which left its forces exposed to a deadly ambush, gave Africa Corps an opportunity to assert itself in Mali. That process accelerated in spring 2025 with a visit by Yevkurov and culminated with Wagner’s “mission complete” announcement in early June 2025. […]

Since its inception in 2023, the Kremlin has used Africa Corps to help expand Russian power and influence across the continent, especially in West Africa and the Sahel. Despite this, it remains to be seen whether Russia will have the resources in the future to materialize its ambitions.

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