Geopolitics › Sub-Saharan Africa › Sahel coups and the Alliance of Sahel States
Wagner Group and Russia's Africa Corps
In Africa since 2017· Conflict or rivalry
FactTreaties, membership, measured data, events.
Russian paramilitary forces in Africa, first the Wagner Group and now mainly the Defense Ministry's Africa Corps, that protect friendly regimes.
See it on the Geopolitics map →The picture
Wagner, run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, arrived in Sudan in 2017, then the Central African Republic, Libya and, from 2021, Mali, trading protection for mining concessions and influence. After Prigozhin's 2023 mutiny and death, Moscow folded most African operations into the Africa Corps, which replaced Wagner in Mali in June 2025. UN investigators and rights groups accuse these forces of massacres, notably at Moura, Mali, in 2022. In April 2026 Russian troops left Kidal under rebel pressure.
Why it matters
It is Russia's low-cost tool for displacing France and the West in Africa while earning gold, money and diplomatic votes.
Key facts and numbers
UN human-rights reports, investigations by journalists and groups such as The Sentry and All Eyes on Wagner, and Russian official statements about the Africa Corps.
What to watch
How effective it is militarily after losses to rebels and jihadists, and how much gold and money flow back to Moscow.
Connections (2)
▸Sahel coups and the Alliance of Sahel States invited in Wagner Group and Russia's Africa CorpsFact
The relationship
As ties with France collapsed, Mali's junta brought in Wagner in late 2021, and French troops left in 2022; Burkina Faso and Niger later welcomed Russian instructors and Africa Corps units. Russia offers regime protection, weapons and no conditions on democracy or rights, in exchange for payment and mining access.
Since when and why
Mali from December 2021; Burkina Faso from early 2024; Niger from April 2024, after it ordered US troops out.
How we know
Junta and Russian statements, satellite imagery of bases, and UN and journalist investigations of their operations.
What to watch
Whether Russia stays as losses mount after its April 2026 exit from Kidal, and how much of Mali's gold it gains.
▸Wagner Group and Russia's Africa Corps is controlled by RussiaFact
The relationship
Wagner was nominally private but funded and armed by the Russian state. After Prigozhin's June 2023 mutiny and his death in a plane crash that August, the Defense Ministry, through deputy minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, took over the African operations as the Africa Corps, under direct state command.
Since when and why
Moscow; the Africa Corps emerged in late 2023 and replaced Wagner in Mali in June 2025.
How we know
Putin's June 2023 admission that the state fully financed Wagner, Defense Ministry announcements and Yevkurov's visits to Sahel capitals.
What to watch
How much independence remaining Wagner units keep, as in the Central African Republic, and how much military intelligence, the GRU, directs them.