Two Tanzanian students taken hostage by Hamas in Gaza have been named by both the Israeli and Tanzanian authorities.
Joshua Loitu Mollel and Clemence Felix Mtenga were in Israel as part of an agricultural internship programme, Israel's foreign ministry said on X.
"They were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and are being held hostage in Gaza," the statement read.
Mr Mollel's father told the BBC he has hope that his eldest son will return safely.
He said that Tanzania's ambassador to Israel had assured him the two governments were working together to secure their release.
Before it was confirmed that his son, 21, had been taken hostage, Mr Mollel told the BBC he couldn't eat or sleep because he was desperate to know what had happened to him.
"When I go to the market people ask me why I'm losing so much weight," he said last week.
The last time Mr Mollel spoke to his son was on Thursday 5 October - two days before the Hamas gunmen attacked Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where he was studying.
The last words he said were: "Be on your best behaviour because you're somewhere new, and make the most of the internship you're there to do."
Mr Mtenga's family is yet to speak publicly.
They were among 260 Tanzanian students in Israel.
On 7 October 1,400 people were massacred by Hamas - which the UK, US and other Western powers class as a terrorist organisation - in Israel.
More than 220 hostages were taken over the border to the Gaza Strip which is under Hamas control.
Israel says they come from 25 countries, including one South African who is yet to be identified.
The South African authorities have not commented.
Hamas says it has hidden the hostages in "safe places and tunnels" within Gaza.
Four of the hostages have since been released, including Yocheved Lifschitz, an 85-year-old grandmother who was kidnapped alongside her husband Oded from a different kibbutz.
During the handover she shook the hand of her Hamas captor. She said she had been beaten with sticks while being taken to Gaza but had otherwise been well treated.
Since the attack, Israel has retaliated with air strikes that have killed more than 8,000 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.
mu2sa2: Today's war will be a war of missiles. See the damage ordinary Hamas has done with simple rocket fire. Hezbollah is a more formidable force reputed to have more sophisticated guided missiles capable of reaching anywhere in isreal. Iran is an acknowledged missile and drone superpower. The 6-day war is history, a war today will be total madness that'II destroy everything leaving everyone vanquished as in ongoing Russia-Ukraine tangle of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).
Israel last night vowed to cut off 'the head of the snake' and launch a military attack against Iran if Tehran-backed terror group Hezbollah joins the war.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, Nir Barkat, Israel's Minister of Economy, warned that Iran's Ayatollahs will be 'wiped off the face of the earth' should Hezbollah, their proxy terror group in Lebanon, attack Israel.
His incendiary comments raise the grave spectre of a rapidly escalating regional conflict and come ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to 'annihilate' Hamas.
Tens of thousands of Israeli soldiers are in position on the borders of the territory, where Hamas – which is also backed by Iran – is holding around 200 hostages seized in the violent assault on southern Israel on October 7.
But fears are growing that Israel could be forced to fight on two fronts, with Hezbollah and the Israel Defence Forces last week repeatedly trading fire across Israel's northern border with Lebanon.
In a direct threat to deter Tehran from intervening further, Mr Barkat warned that not only would Israel 'eliminate Hezbollah', if it believes the terror group is opening up a 'northern front', but 'we will actually target Iran.'
'The plan of Iran is to attack Israel on all fronts. If we find they intend to target Israel, we will not just retaliate to those fronts, but we will go to the head of the snake, which is Iran.
If our enemies attack, we will wipe them out 'The Ayatollahs in Iran are not going to sleep good at night, we are going to make sure they pay a heavy price if, God forbid, they open the northern front.
'Lebanon and Hezbollah are going to pay a heavy price, similar to what Hamas is going to pay. But that's not enough.
'The very clear message is that we are going to be going after the heads of Iran as well. When will we do that? When we decide.
'Israel has a very clear message to our enemies. We are saying to them, look what's happening in Gaza – you are going to get the same treatment if you attack us. We are going to wipe you off the face of the Earth.'
Ukraine said Monday it had killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in a missile strike on the naval headquarters in occupied Crimea.
It comes days after an attack that left the building smoldering, the latest salvo in a mounting effort to target the Kremlin’s naval forces and isolate the annexed peninsula.
Kyiv did not provide evidence for the claim, which NBC News has not verified, but if confirmed it would be one of the most high-profile losses of the war so far.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said in a post on Telegram that “the commander” of the Black Sea Fleet was among 34 officers who died in the strike on the fleet’s headquarters in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Friday.
The commander of the fleet is Viktor Sokolov, although the Ukrainian statement did not name him directly.
Rumors had circulated among Ukraine-watchers all weekend that Sokolov had been killed. Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“If true it would likely be the highest ranking naval officer killed in combat since WWII,” Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander and current chief international security analyst for NBC News, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said in another Telegram post that the strike on the fleet’s headquarters caused “dozens of dead and wounded occupants, including the senior leadership of the fleet.”
It said the strike had been part of an operation named “Crab trap" that it said was carried out “on time and accurately” during a meeting of the Russian navy’s senior members at the building.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Voice of America on Saturday that at least nine people were killed and 16 others wounded as a result of Kyiv’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday. He said Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack.
Shortly after Friday’s attack, Russia’s defense ministry said that one serviceman was killed. It later said this person was missing, adding that five missiles were shot down by air defenses.
Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014, in violation of international law.
It has since bolstered the peninsula's military assets, but its use of the area just off Ukraine's mainland coast to support its invasion has also made it a growing target for Kyiv's strikes.
Ukraine's efforts to hit behind Russian lines were given a boost last week when President Joe Biden told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the U.S. would provide a small number of long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, three U.S. officials and a congressional official familiar with the discussions told NBC News.
Ukraine has vowed it will retake Crimea as part of its campaign and has stepped up its attacks against the Russian navy in recent months, damaging ships and buildings stationed on the peninsula.
Sevastopol, the city hit by Friday’s strikes, is the largest population center in Crimea. Its port is the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, which has been used to launch attacks deep into Ukraine.
In April last year, Ukrainian missiles launched with the help of U.S. intelligence sank a Russian guided missile cruiser, the Moskva, which was the flagship of the fleet and the largest Russian warship sunk in combat since World War II.
Sokolov has led the fleet since August last year, the result of a major reshuffle that came after the Moskva’s sinking and strikes against the fleet on Crimea.
He rose through a series of posts in the Pacific and Northern Fleets, serving as deputy commander in the latter, according to Russian state media. From 2020 he headed a prestigious military academy, before taking command of the Black Sea Fleet last year.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation will start turning over approximately 2,500 documents relating to President Bola Tinubu in its database, Peoples Gazette can report.
The frontline American law enforcement institution said it would start releasing the documents effective October ending at 500 pages per month, according to a new court filing obtained by The Gazette.
“FBI has identified a total of approximately 2500 pages potentially responsive to FOIA requests 1553430-00 and 1587544-000,” the U.S. body said in a status report docketed on September 11 at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. “FBI plans a processing schedule of 500 pages per month, with an initial release anticipated by the end of October 2023.”
The unexpected move followed FBI’s initial reluctance to turn over the documents in line with a freedom of information request first filed in 2022. Aaron Greenspan, who runs PlainSite, a website that pushes anti-corruption and transparency in public service, filed the request in collaboration with journalist David Hundeyin. The Gazette has monitored the application for months and offered suggestions to help ensure its success after initial excuses by the FBI.
The disclosure is expected to clarify outstanding questions about when Mr Tinubu entered the U.S., under which name he entered and all activities he has been involved in ever since. Mr Tinubu spent decades in the United States, appearing to have first moved there in the 1970s. More details about his forfeiture of $460,000 over drug dealing in Chicago the 1990s are also expected to be among the records to be released.
The Nigerian president’s background has remained a misery for most citizens as questions about his real parents and childhood education have not been answered.
Sept 5 (Reuters) - Soap maker PZ Cussons (PZC.L) said on Tuesday it has offered to buy out minority shareholders of PZ Cussons Nigeria (PZCN) and aims to de-list the business from the Nigerian stock exchange amid "foreign exchange challenges" in the country.
"The group believes the offer to be attractive for the minority shareholders of PZCN, particularly given the recent macroeconomic developments and foreign exchange challenges," the company said in a statement.
Inflation in Africa's largest economy, which has been in double digits since 2016, rose to its highest level in nearly two decades in July at 24.08% against 22.79% in June after the country scrapped a popular but costly subsidy on petrol and devalued the currency.
The Manchester-based company said in June that the devaluation of Nigeria's naira currency would adversely impact its profit next year.
PZ Cussons' offer to the PZCN board is to acquire minority shareholders' 26.73% stake for 22.8 million pounds ($28.7 million). The group said the funding for the transaction is expected to come from existing naira cash balances.
Last month, GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria (GLAXOSM.LG) said it plans to stop doing business after evaluating the options for moving to a third-party distribution model for its drugs and consumer healthcare goods.
($1 = 0.7933 pounds)
Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; editing by Janane Venkatraman and Jason Neely
tunde1200: Always them, they have no single regard for anyone on social media. I wonder how they train them when they are young.
Nothing in their head other than hating other tribes.
Good morning Sir. It has been proven from the outcome of this election that a certain sect of Yoruba people are the No 1 TRIBAL BIGOTS in Nigeria. They are willing to support criminality and corruption because their own person is president. Truly disgusting.
GOTVee: Even though I'm a born again Christian, I support the police on this. Those rogue Obidients needs to be locked away and keys thrown Into the Atlantic Ocean. With the level of hate these people have spread across board, it will be a miracle to have an igbo president in this country. Everyone can see through their shenanigans that the Obidient thing was a facade, the real mission is to produce an igbo president
He is alleged to be one of those who sit down in a corner and write hate-filled hurtful fake news to tarnish, destroy, cyberbullly and criminally defame innocent people because they are not from his tribe, religion and political preference. Now he will have his own day in court like that convicted one who was paid N200k to peddle falsehoods against Eniola Badmus.
One day will be turn for the remaining cyberbullies and criminal defamers still trolling the social media and here on NL too. Their digital footprints of cyberbullying and criminal defamation crimes will come up during background checks on them as well.
The DSS must do more to ensure that characters indulging in the crime he was alleged of committing must face the justice system. Their victims deserve justice. Check my signature for free stuffs!
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — A statement from Niger’s military regime says the junta has revoked the diplomatic immunity of France’s ambassador and ordered police to expel him from the African country.
A communique from Niger’s foreign ministry says the ambassador “no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities attached to his status as a member of the diplomatic staff of the embassy.”
The mutinous soldiers who ousted Niger’s president more than one month ago gave French Ambassador Sylvain Itte 48 hours to leave the country last week. The deadline expired on August 28 without France recalling Itte. The French government says it doesn’t recognize the coup rulers as the country’s legitimate leaders.
safarilove: All this former french colonies too get liver..first Niger, now Gabon. And their suffering levels no reach wetin we dey endure for here oo..
helinues: New mission in West Africa because na them be our father?
EU better respect themselves and never see the other side of the African youths in general. If we have not been meddling into you people's affairs, then please stay out of our issue, we can handle it ourselves.
All the issues you people have been involved with have only escalated the situation.
The coup in Niger at the end of July marks the latest in the decade-long wave of military takeovers that has washed over the Sahel – that semi-arid band that stretches across Africa, from the Atlantic coast of southern Mauritania to Sudan in the east.
There are undoubtedly internal political drivers behind the particular putsch in Niger, just as there were in Chad (2021) or Mali (2012, 2020 and 2021). It has been reported that elected president Mohamed Bazoum was planning to reform the Nigerien military high command. And so, fearing for their future, General Tchiani and other senior military figures took preemptive action, deposed Bazoum and seized power. It’s also worth noting that Tchiani has previous, too, having been implicated in a failed coup in 2015.
Yet while internal intra-elite power struggles have undoubtedly played a role here, it’s difficult not to see the coup in Niger as part of a region-wide phenomenon. After all, what’s happening in Niger at the moment resembles what has already happened in Niger’s neighbours, Chad, Burkina Faso and especially Mali. In each, military leaders have seized power in response to what each invariably calls the ‘deteriorating security situation’.
And they’re not wrong. These Sahelian, West African states are in the grip of a broad, largely Salafi-jihadist insurgency. Drawing on and exploiting often long-standing local grievances, the likes of Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (a coalition of al-Qaeda affiliates), Boko Haram and an assortment of Islamic State spin-offs dominate northern Mali, large swathes of Burkina Faso and the western (Tillabéri and Tahoua) and southern (Diffa and Maradi) regions of Niger. Thousands upon thousands of people are being killed each year in what amounts to a region-wide conflict. According to one recent study, ‘the Sahel now accounts for nearly half of the world’s terrorism deaths’ – more than the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia combined.
That is what is happening in the Sahel right now. Each coup can be seen as a desperate attempt to assert some semblance of state power over the increasingly lawless borderlands and peripheries of these nations. It also explains why each coup leadership has invited in the Russian mercenary organisation, Wagner. This paramilitary group offers a brutal means to achieve state ends. Indeed, Wagner is already said to be responsible for several atrocities in Mali and beyond.
The instability and disorder may be region-wide. And the local grievances may be deeply rooted. But the source of the Sahel’s unravelling over the past decade does not lie in the Sahel. It lies principally in the West – in the metropoles of Paris, London and Washington, DC. That’s because the turmoil that is now engulfing Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and so on has its roots in the Franco-British-led, US-supported intervention in Libya in 2011.
That fateful decision to impose a no-fly zone over Libya in 2011, that decision to effectively support the overthrow of Libya’s tin-pot dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, unleashed the forces that are now tearing the region apart. Gaddafi’s regime was no doubt oppressive. But it was also just about the only thing holding the Libyan state together.
By removing Gaddafi, the West effectively destroyed the Libyan state, and fuelled the nation’s descent into a still-ongoing civil war. Libya’s collapse also plunged its southern neighbours into the turmoil in which they now find themselves. Its first effects were visible in Mali, when Tuareg fighters, hitherto employed by the Libyan state, returned home to Mali and reenergised the long-simmering Tuareg insurgency in Mali’s north in 2012.
The effect of Libya’s collapse and descent into intra-militia conflict was always going to affect all of its southern neighbours. It created an ungoverned, lawless space, in which violent, largely Salafist militancy flourished, alongside gun-running and drug-trafficking. And this violent militancy then fuelled and mapped on to the latent grievances of certain peoples in the states of the Sahel, from the Tuaregs in Mali’s north to the long-ignored Fulani herders of Niger’s pastoral backwaters.
Over the past decade, the West’s blundering and unwitting destruction of Libya has played out like a slow-motion calamity. It has eaten away at the integrity of neighbouring states, fuelling local opposition and secessionist movements. And it has prompted the desperate militarisation of the Malian, Burkina and Nigerien states – their respective armies have grown several-fold over the past decade. Now it has pushed these faltering states into the arms of cynical mercenary groups like Wagner.
What’s worse, the Western, French-led intervention didn’t stop at Libya. It morphed into an ever-expanding region-wide ‘counter-terrrorist’ effort. This began with France’s Operation Serval in Mali in 2013, later re-named Operation Barkhane, which involved several thousand French troops in combat with militants in Mali, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso. By the mid-2010s, French military intervention had been absorbed into both the Multinational Joint Task Force and the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). It meant that by the start of this decade, France, alongside the US and several regional actors, were embroiled in a Sahel-wide counter-insurgency effort. The US even planned to build a $110million drone base in Niger to wage remote war on various jihadist groups. That is now highly unlikely to ever see the light of day.
If the Western intervention in Libya kickstarted the instability, the subsequent efforts to contain it have only caused it to spread. And no wonder. Western cross-border intervention has continued to undermine existing states. It has involved taking sides in civil conflicts. As a result, it has provided an object of local resentment and turned into a useful recruitment tool for jihadists. Indeed, local reports of international forces killing civilians, including a French fighter jet bombing a wedding in Mali in 2021, made for particularly grim headlines.
It is difficult to overstate the desperate plight of the Sahel right now. There are reckoned to be over two-and-a-half million displaced people in one of the most impoverished regions on the planet – a region now wracked by ethnic clashes and jihadist violence. The military seizures of power in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and now Niger may well look like an ‘epidemic of coup d’états’ to UN secretary general Antonio Guterres. But they are better grasped as symptoms – symptoms of the political turmoil and instability unleashed by a singularly catastrophic Western intervention.
The people of the Sahel need so many things right now. But above all they need what the 20th-century anti-colonialist movements promised – that is, secure, sovereign nation states. For that, they need to free themselves from Western intervention just as much as from Wagner.
Faced with "the refusal of the French ambassador in Niamey to respond to an invitation" from the minister for a meeting Friday and "other actions of the French government contrary to the interests of Niger, the authorities have decided to withdraw their approval of Sylvain Itte and ask him to depart within 48 hours", the statement said.
This decision follows a series of statements and demonstrations hostile toward France since the Nigerien army overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, who has since been detained with his family.
The military leaders accuse Paris of wanting to intervene military in Niger in order to reinstate Bazoum and claim that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is an organisation in the pocket of former regional colonial power France.
ECOWAS has imposed heavy economic sanctions on Niger following the coup and has threatened the use of armed force to restore constitutional order.
France has some 1,500 troops stationed in Niger to aid in fighting jihadist groups that have plagued the country along with the wider Sahel region for years.
Masked men claiming to belong to the Wagner group have warned the Kremlin to “get ready for us” after the reported death of their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“There’s a lot of talk right now about what the Wagner group will do. We can tell you one thing: we are getting started, get ready for us,” the men warned in a video posted on Russian Telegram channels.
Mercenary chief Mr Prigozhin is reported to be among 10 people killed in a plane crash in Russia. Footage showed the flaming wreckage after a private jet came down near Moscow on Wednesday evening.
The plane carrying three pilots and seven passengers was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg, according to officials cited by Russia's state news agency Tass. Mr Prigozhin was on the passenger list for the plane, Russia’s civil aviation authority said.
Mr Prigozhin’s fate has been the subject of intense speculation ever since he mounted a short-lived mutiny against Russia's military leadership in late June. President Putin and the Kremlin have yet to comment on the crash.
‘Get ready for us’, warn Wagner mercenaries after Prigozhin death Masked men claiming to belong to the Wagner Group have warned the Kremlin to “get ready for us” after the reported death of their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
"There’s a lot of talk right now about what the Wagner Group will do. We can tell you one thing, we are getting started, get ready for us," the masked men warned.
Earlier reports said Russia security forces in two regions were put on alert after Wagner mercenaries vowed to “avenge” Prigozhin’s death.
Anyone rejoicing that Wagner Boss Yevgeny Prigozhin may have died in a fiery plane crash should hold back on the fireworks as one expert has warned it could have been a body double aboard the plane.
The notorious mercenary boss, whose gang of blood thirsty soldiers has been blamed for warcrimes from Ukraine to Mali, is 'feared' dead in a plane crash along with 10 people on board.
This came after the 62-year-old billionaire led a coup against Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime exactly two months ago and had been warned that his life was in danger. Putin has long reacted brutally to betrayal actual or merely perceived.
But one expert has said it might not actually have been Prigozhin on board, even if it was his name on the passenger list. Keir Giles, Senior Consulting Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House, told the US Mirror to "not be surprised if he pops up shortly in a new video from Africa."
Mr Giles explained: “There is one huge caveat to the early reporting. It's been announced that a passenger by the name of Yevgeniy Prigozhin was on board. But it is also known that multiple individuals have changed their name to Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as part of his efforts to obfuscate his travels.
"So until we know for certain that it's the right Prigozhin, let's not be surprised if he pops up shortly in a new video from Africa. Everybody who was surprised Prigozhin survived his attempt to challenge the authority of the state in Russia with an armed mutiny, and said his days were numbered, will now be saying they told us so. (Including me.)"
The jet was en route from Moscow to St Petersburg when it plummeted to the ground and exploded in a fireball in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital. Ten people were on board - three of them crew members. A channel linked to Wagner said the plane had been shot down by Russian air defenses but there was no official confirmation of this.
He said: “We are unlikely ever to know the true cause of the crash. Whether or not this was a deliberate assassination, the crash is so politically significant that there is no chance of any investigation that will be either transparent or reliable. If this was a deliberate assassination of Prigozhin, there would have been multiple factors that influenced the choice of timing.
"But it can't have hurt that today, this will serve as just the distraction Russia's state media needs from the country's humiliation by India landing on the Moon where Russia failed spectacularly to do so a few days before.”"
In the wake of the July 26 coup in Niger, the world’s spotlight has once again turned to the expansion of private military and security companies (PMSCs) across Africa. Following the removal of the relatively pro-Western government, Niger’s new military rulers asked Russian PMSC Wagner to help defend against a possible military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning of the PMSC seeking to exploit the instability.
In a continent marked by decades of post-colonial turmoil, PMSCs have steadily gained influence, evolving from their historical role as mercenaries into powerful, corporate-driven forces. As the Sahel region continues to grapple with instability and conflict, the strengthening of PMSCs, both domestic and foreign, will continue to reshape Africa’s security in profound and unpredictable ways.
Africa’s experience with PMSCs dates back to the decolonization period after World War II. Though mercenaries had been steadily sidelined in conflicts for centuries, rag-tag groups of privateers emerged as shadowy accomplices to colonial powers, aiding in suppressing rebellions and fomenting unrest while providing a degree of ambiguity. Britain’s “Mad Mike” Hoare and France’s Bob Denard came to exemplify this era through their active involvement in military operations that undermined the sovereignty of African states.
The end of the Cold War ushered in a new chapter for PMSCs. With millions of demobilized soldiers seeking employment and civil conflicts on the rise in the early 1990s, these entities evolved into more corporate forms. The South African PMSC Executive Outcomes (EO), founded in 1989 by Eeben Barlow, gained notoriety by accepting contracts to protect energy infrastructure in Angola and to fight Sierra Leone’s civil war.
Pressure from South Africa’s post-apartheid government led to the disbandment of EO in 1998. But other PMSCs had emerged, including Sandline International, also financed by EO backer Anthony Buckingham and Canadian businessman Rakesh Saxena, that helped gain control over mineral rights in Sierra Leone. And after Washington began to lean heavily on PMSCs during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the taboo of using them was broken.
Existing in a legal gray zone, PMSCs have leveraged their strategic capabilities worldwide—no more so than in Africa. Fragile government institutions, powerful criminal and militant groups, international power struggles, and competition over Africa’s natural resources have nurtured an environment supportive of a growing network of PMSCs. Across the continent, they are used to secure energy facilities, government buildings, and private infrastructure, protect local actors and foreign personnel, and provide police and military training, intelligence, and active fire support to governments and corporate clients.
Through entities like the colossal PMSC Wagner, Russia has found an unconventional and effective way to assert influence in Africa’s security landscape. In the Sahel region, Russian PMSCs have filled a void left by departing French military forces and capitalizing on local anti-French sentiment in recent years.
Amid shifting allegiances, Wagner underscores how Russia’s indirect power projection allows the Kremlin to wield substantial influence without deploying conventional military forces.
Amid shifting allegiances, Wagner underscores how Russia’s indirect power projection allows the Kremlin to wield substantial influence without deploying conventional military forces. Wagner’s activities are believed to span across Mali, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Angola, Madagascar, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Other Russian PMSCs, such as RSB Group, Moran Security Group, and Patriot, also operate across Africa.
At the center of Russia’s PMSC network in Africa stands Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s financier. The Russian tycoon celebrated the success of the coup in Niger and declared Wagner capable of handling the situation, though the Russian government declined to support it. Despite Prigozhin’s longstanding quarrels with the Russian military, which culminated in his insurrectionist march toward Moscow in June, Prigozhin was recently seen meeting with African dignitaries on the side of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg.
As the Nigerien government grapples with its situation, Wagner could again act as a Kremlin surrogate, safeguarding Russia’s interests by filling the security vacuum left by the ousted French military. Already, there are fears that Niger may halt uranium exports, vital to both French and EU supplies, and forcing the West’s attention to the country. Russian media has criticized Prigozhin since his rebellion and officials have downplayed state connections to Wagner’s activities in Africa. But Prigozhin’s ongoing role in Africa suggests the Kremlin is relying on smoke and mirrors to obscure its true motivations.
Beyond Russia, numerous Western PMSCs have embedded themselves within Africa’s security. Unlike Russia’s PMSCs, most do not operate on the frontlines of conflict and primarily operate in security and training roles, though do coordinate with official military deployments. French PMSC Secopex made headlines in 2011 when its founder was killed in Libya during the country’s revolution, and it remains unclear as to what the PMSC’s role was.
Secopex had also been involved in the CAR and Somalia, while Corpguard (also created by the co-founder of Secopex, David Hornus) has been involved in training the Cote D’Ivoire’s military.
Other French PMSCs, such as Agemira, are active in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Though French-owned, Agemira is registered in Bulgaria to take advantage of the country’s lack of regulation and transparency. The UK’s Aegis Defence Services is believed to have worked in 18 African countries, while G4S, Erinys, and Olive Group are also active in Africa.
U.S. PMSCs have been active across the continent since the 2000s, with MPRI, CACI International, and Academi (previously the notorious Blackwater) among the most notable. Others, such as DynCorp, have provided training and logistical support to Liberia, Sudan, and Somalia, while Triple Canopy has been active in Niger. AdvanFort Co in turn offers anti-piracy maritime protection in East and West Africa. Germany’s Xeless and Asgaard are also active in Africa, with the latter having operations in Sudan, Libya, Mauritania, and Egypt.
PMSCs have increasingly begun to operate in the same conflict zones. Somalia, which lacked a functional state for more than two decades, provided fertile ground for PMSC expansion. PMSCs from the U.S., UK, China, UAE, and even Norway have helped Somalia train its official government forces and provide maritime protection from piracy and terrorism and ensure stability. But in Libya, PMSCs from or backed by Russia, France, the UK, the U.S., Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and more have all been sent to the country since 2011 to exploit the chaos and advance their interests.
Active in Libya, Turkey’s SADAT group has also signed deals to train African troops while pitching itself as a Muslim alternative PMSC for Islamic-majority countries. The UAE-based Black Shield Security Company was accused in 2020 of promising Sudanese citizens security contractor jobs but instead sent them to conflict zones in Libya. Other UAE PMSCs have been active in East Africa, including in Somalia, while China has developed a multitude of PMSCs to secure its Belt and Road projects in Africa. Israeli PMSCs have their own African operations.
In 2014, the Nigerian government began hiring PMSCs to help defeat the Boko Haram insurgency. One of them, Specialized Task, Training, Equipment, and Protection (STTEP), was also set by EO’s Barlow and saw significant success that helped grant it additional contracts. Other modern South African PMSCs include Osprey, Blackhawk, and Dyck Advisory Group, the latter of which was hired by Mozambique to combat Al-Shabaab militants but was accused of killing civilians indiscriminately by the UN in 2020.
The use of PMSCs in Africa is likely to expand. They often offer African governments a quick, relatively inexpensive, and tailored way to manage crises instead of relying on ineffective state forces. PMSCs also enable international companies to protect themselves without relying on the fanfare of official military deployments by working with another corporate entity.
Nonetheless, this raises questions about sovereignty, a recurring issue in a continent where it has consistently been violated since African countries won their independence. The monopoly on the use of violent force by their police and military institutions has been steadily eroded by criminals, militants, foreign countries, and increasingly, PMSCs.
The dangers of commodifying security are evident. Foreign companies and powerful local actors can afford security, while the core issues of instability in countries or regions are not addressed. Furthermore, instability is often used by outside forces to their advantage. Many Africans also end up working for PMSCs outside the continent because they are cheaper than recruits from other parts of the world.
Furthermore, PMSCs, and the governments and companies that employ them, remain largely uncommitted to stronger regulation. The Montreux Document aimed to enforce greater rules for PMSCs, but has been criticized for its limited scope and lack of binding nature. Other countries, including the five members of the UN Security Council, have refused to ratify the UN International Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing, and Training of Mercenaries.
Criticism of PMSCs in Africa is growing. In February 2023, the African Union (AU) commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security, Bankole Adeoye, called for the “complete exclusion of mercenaries from the African continent.” But U.S. PMSC Bancroft Global had already been hired by the AU to assess the risk of Somali forces trained by Blackwater founder Erik Prince to continue operating in the country.
These entities epitomize globalization. Aegis Defence Services was acquired by Canadian company GardaWorld in 2015, while DynCorp was bought by Amentum in 2020. Academi and Triple Canopy merged in 2014 to form Constellis Group, while Triple Canopy has outsourced work to Peru-based PMSC Defion International. Erik Prince, through the Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group, has helped China train its own PMSCs for use in Africa and elsewhere. G4S was meanwhile bought by Allied Universal in 2021 and is now North America’s third-largest private employer. Allied Universal itself is owned by institutional investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
Many PMSCs provide legitimate and needed security for civilians and government officials. But considering the wide-ranging motivations, means, and methods of so many PMSCs on the continent—and increasingly in the same spaces—it is critical for Africa’s governments, leaders, and populations to consider how comfortable they are in allowing this rapidly developing global PMSC network to continue expanding in their own backyards.
This article was produced by Globetrotter.
The opinions expressed here are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions or beliefs of the LA Progressive.
John P. Ruehl BY JOHN P. RUEHL John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022.
thesicilian: Which "sane cline" have you been to? You people are in the habit of cursing your own heads everyday trying to sound intelligent and interesting. Is Nigeria a colony under the US or UK that we have to punish every suspect of theirs even when we have no reason here to do do so? And more importantly, you'd be very naive to think that Nigeria is more corrupt than any of those countries you so like to refer to as sane.
Another supporter of thieves, corrupt kleptomaniacs and fraudsters. Spits ....
Foreign Affairs › Israel Gaza War: Hamas Takes Tanzanian Students And Other Nationalities Hostage by SeeThisLoser(op): 12:16pm On Oct 30, 2023
Even though I'm a born again Christian, I support the police on this. Those rogue Obidients needs to be locked away and keys thrown Into the Atlantic Ocean. With the level of hate these people have spread across board, it will be a miracle to have an igbo president in this country. Everyone can see through their shenanigans that the Obidient thing was a facade, the real mission is to produce an igbo president