Meet Ibrahim Traoré, Russia’s favourite new African strongman

While Russia is struggling bitter setbacks within the Ukraine conflict, it’s efficiently increasing its affect in Africa. With Burkina Faso, Moscow has succeeded in detaching one other nation from the French sphere of affect. The Kremlin was not solely motivated by safety coverage, but in addition by digging into the assets obtainable, writes Christian Putsch in German every day Die Welt.

Experience reveals that the variety of well-wishers after coups d’état is near zero.

The scenario is completely different for Burkina Faso’s new army ruler, Ibrahim Traoré. Although he obtained the anticipated condemnation for his September 30 coup from the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union and the West African confederation Ecowas, he additionally obtained benevolent phrases — from Russia.

They got here from Russian oligarch Yevgini Prigozhin, founder of the Kremlin-affiliated mercenary group Wagner.

“I congratulate and support Captain Ibrahim Traoré,” the Putin loyalist introduced simply hours after the coup, when the entire world was nonetheless puzzling over who this soldier, who’s simply 34 years outdated and has to date been relatively secondary within the military hierarchy, is.

He is “a truly worthy and courageous son of his homeland,” Prigozhin defined.

The Kremlin apparently sees in Africa’s youngest head of state the ally it had hoped for within the particular person of Traoré’s predecessor earlier this yr. At that point, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, a far better-known army chief, seized energy.

Unlike Traoré, he introduced down a democratically elected president on the time. Unlike the army in neighboring Mali, nonetheless, he didn’t steer his nation toward Russian spheres of influence to the extent Moscow had hoped.

That is extra more likely to be the case beneath Traoré. Russian flags could possibly be seen in footage of his supporters, and journalists reported pro-Russian chants. And Traoré rapidly spoke of Russia as a doable new companion. Like his predecessor Damiba, he has justified his intervention by citing failure to struggle terrorist teams, a few of which have free ties to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

In Burkina Faso, many voters attribute this failure to France. The former colonial energy has a base on the outskirts of the capital, Ouagadougou, and supplies the nation with army assist.

One of Traoré’s henchmen sparked assaults by protesters in opposition to the French embassy, shops and a cultural heart when he claimed the previous colonial energy was hiding the ousted Damiba — one thing France promptly denied. It is now clear that Damiba has fled to Togo.

Burkina Faso has skilled essentially the most speedy deterioration of the safety scenario of all of the Sahel states this yr. With 3,252 deaths, it’s already far above final yr’s determine (2,359) and nearly on a par with Mali. The authorities now controls solely a great half of the nation. More than two million individuals have needed to flee. That is one in ten of the entire inhabitants.

With the second coup inside eight months in Burkina Faso, the “epidemic of coups d’état” that has occurred primarily in Africa over the previous two years continues. “The extent to which Russia is behind the new coup is still unclear,” says Ulf Laessing, the pinnacle of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Sahel regional program.

The Kremlin has been courting army cooperation with Burkina Faso for a while, because it has lengthy performed in Mali. “At least parts of the military government have sympathies for Russia,” says Laessing, “the new government will not be able to ignore the pro-Russian sentiment.”

This has been systematically constructed up for years. Burkina Faso is among the most profitable markets for Russian overseas broadcaster Sputnik, and Russia Today has additionally massively expanded its French-language propaganda choices right here. In addition, the Prigozhin troll manufacturing facility “Internet Research Agency” continues to warmth up the temper in opposition to the previous colonial energy France in social media.

This advantages Russia’s geopolitical pursuits, which, after the Central African Republic and Mali, is attempting to detach one other nation from France’s sphere of influence in Africa. Moreover, the disaster in Burkina Faso might worsen safety in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire — France’s most vital ally in West Africa.

But Burkina Faso can be of curiosity to the Kremlin economically. The structurally weak nation is the fourth largest gold producer on the continent. “Several Russian mining companies are already digging for gold there,” says Laessing, “so the payment of possible Wagner mercenaries could also be settled quickly.”

That’s as a result of Wagner has its providers paid for with mining concessions, the phrases of that are dealt with confidentially. That’s what occurred in Sudan, the Central African Republic and, most just lately, Mali — all of that are among the many continent’s extra resource-rich nations.

To make this doable in the long run, Prigozhin helps autocratic regimes preserve energy — and by the way creates an existential geopolitical dependence on the Kremlin.

So far, nonetheless, the Kremlin mercenaries haven’t had any actual successes within the struggle in opposition to terrorism. In Mali, the variety of assaults continued to rise after France’s withdrawal. And in Mozambique, after large losses, a number of hundred terrorists had been already defeated in 2019. After only a few weeks.

— Christian Putsch / Die Welt

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