Russia’s unambiguous and clear message to the separatist Tuaregs who agree to lay down their arms says that they will receive the security guarantees of the Russian Federation and will be accorded equal political rights with the rest of the inhabitants of the Sahel. But for any other armed group that continue to believe in the support of the French and NATO imperialist forces, they should prepare to be decisively defeated by the formidable Surovikin and the Russian army.
The simmering cold war between Russia and the West over Africa is gradually growing into a full blown hot war. The main theater of this emerging war is the seven frontline countries of the Sahel region – Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigér, Chad and Sudan.
Prior to 1991, the world was mostly bipolar, and divided into two spheres of geopolitical influence. On one side stood the USA and her allies, referred to as the collective west, and on the other, the Soviet Union (USSR). In between these two superpowers lied most countries of the developing world who constituted the global south, and who identified themselves as ‘none aligned’. The even balance of power between the two superpowers was a guarantor of global stability and the security of the non aligned countries. This state of affairs lasted until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Thereafter, the triumphal West set themselves on a determined mission of global hegemony, and the enforcement of a unipolar world order, through the subjugation of every other country, and bringing them under their thumps.
Of all countries, it was the countries of Africa who suffered the most from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Now unfettered by the checks of a peer power, Western countries, on depraved adventures of global predation, descended and pounced on African countries, despoiling, carving out their economic heritages, and looting them blind . Sadly, these were countries that were still attempting to find their feet after just gaining independence following decades of colonialism and its devastations.
The colossal rape and pillaging of Africa by Western countries, pre-and post colonialism, undoubtedly ranks as one of the most tragic chapters in the annals of human history. This was the post-slavery era, during which European countries embarked on the brutal partitioning, scattering and destruction of the ancient, and incredibly original, civilizations in Africa. Some of these, like the ancient kingdoms Asante, Benin, Oyo, Algeria, Ethiopia, Mali etc, were all ascending and actively developing states, with their own cultures and writings, some of which even surpassed European development in many aspects. Before the invasion by Europeans, these countries were on a course of peaceful development. And, if nothing else, at least, they were not engaged in as many cruel and bloody wars as were recorded in Europe at that time. All of this incredibly beautiful development of African people was stopped by the invasion of Europeans.
The 1945 formation of the Soviet Union after the end of World War II, and the appearance of its footholds in Africa, partially stopped this merciless exploitation, robbery, and excoriation of Africa by Europeans. The so called world wars were themselves factually nothing other than the usual internecine inter- European civil wars, in which Africans, and other colonialized people, were forcefully conscripted, and rail-roaded, to fight in basically common day European bloodletting feuds. Following its World War 2 victory over Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union provided the support bulwark that emboldened African states to challenge colonialism and to fight for their independence. In many of these liberation wars, the Soviets funded, and trained African freedom fighters. They also equipped them with weapons and provided them the diplomatic support which forced the Europeans to loosen their colonial shackles. However, as soon as the Soviet Union dissolved and left the global stage in 1991, the West wasted no time taking advantage of the geopolitical vacuum that had appeared. In Africa, they promptly resumed their favorite pastime games of divide and conquer; creating divisions and inciting intra and interstate wars.
Following the dissolution of the USSR, and the inception of the unipolar world of US led Western global hegemony, it was Africa that paid the heaviest price in millions of human lives. These are those who died in direct conflicts, those who died from deliberately engineered famines, and those that perished in man-made epidemics. The genocide of the Tutsi people in Rwanda is entirely the responsibility of the Americans and the French. Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigér, Nigeria and almost all 60 African countries have been affected by external or internal conflicts in one way or another. Evidentially, the West bears special responsibility for the injections of the Islamic terrorism (Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram) plaguing several African countries, as they regularly supply the insurrect jihadist with weapons, logistics and funds. These terrorists are assigned a specific task – to prevent the peoples of Africa from establishing the durable peace interregnum that is necessary for them to begin the process of progressive post-independent state development.
The main thing is that, in the Sahel and other parts of Africa, as soon as the Soviet Union collapsed, the collective West began to destroy every form of inter African integration process with all its might. Actually, it was then that Islamist and other gangs appeared on the outskirts of almost all the key countries of the Sahel region. These were all proxies of the West, created and deployed to constrain any ambitions of inter regional and pan-African integration by national governments and organs like ECOWAS and OAU. The central aim of the project, which was implemented ruthlessly, was to create chaos and the conditions to divide and exploit African countries.
Small, weak states make easy pickings for Western neocolonial exploiters. Therefore, they dread and abhor any country that begins to be wealthy and that try to be more powerful by integrating with neighboring countries. In the Sahel, this was the crime of Nigeria and Libya. Nigeria championed ECOWAS, and Libya was the ardent advocate of the formation of the African Union state (AU), for the prosperity of Africa.
For these anti-neocolonial exploitation crimes, Nigeria is being destabilized and weakened through the hands of well financed and organized insurgent gangs. And, Libya got bombed back to the Stone Age, and its leader, the mercurial Mummer Gaddafi, was made to pay with his life, for his audacious ambitions to engender Pan- African integration. The example made of Gaddafi was deliberately brutal to scare other African leaders from daring to follow in his footsteps. The main fear of the American led west is that both Nigeria and Libya were countries that were accumulating large financial resources and which had built relatively powerful armed forces; militaries which could even project regional power, as Nigeria demonstrated with its ECOMOG forays during the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars. For the west this was an anathematic development which if left unchecked could lead to Libya and Nigeria, with their vast oil wealth, growing, and even succeeding, in creating a new world geopolitical paradigm in the Sahel and Africa, a development which in the future would certainly make them competitors with the West. Hence Nigeria and Libya had to be decisively decimated and ruined.
Thus, having weakened and destroyed the main powers in the Sahel region, Nigeria and Libya, the Western powers succeeded to yet again plunge one of the most promising regions of the world into anarchic violence, backwardness, and grinding poverty.
The basis of the West’s power over the countries of the Sahel was the deliberate degradation of the national armed forces of these countries and the simultaneous, direct creation of separatist (primarily Islamist) terror gangs in the region. While covertly arming insurgent gangs, the hegemonic west discouraged the governments of the countries from building strong arm forces, and denies them access to adequate weaponry. For example, until a year or two ago, Burkina Faso, with a population 22 million, had a military force of only five thousand troops. And Nigér republic, with a population of 25 million, had fewer than 10 thousand, while Mali, also with a population of 22 million had an armed force of less than seven thousand men. The officially stated logic for this, as decided by the neocolonial west, goes thus: “The forces of the French Foreign Legion and of the US armed forces are stationed in the Sahel, so they should be responsible for security in the region. Therefore, you the poor countries of the Sahel do not need to maintain your own army, since you can’t afford it.”
As a result of such a policy, for over the thirty years from the NATO bombing of Libya and the destabilization of the Sahel, gangs of Islamists, who were deliberately inserted in the border areas where these three countries touch (Mali, Nigér and Burkina Faso), have successfully occupied a total of almost a third of the territory of these countries, and have taken control of more than a hundred settlements. Across the region, various shades of bandits, insurgents, and Islamist gangs have established themselves in key areas of the borders of all the countries along the river Niger Basin. The fact is that these are the most fertile lands of these countries, and the presence of these insurrect gangs poses firm barriers to interstate commerce and cooperation. It is known for example, that the French directly command the Islamists operating across the region, including even in Nigeria, where in Rivers State, and the Niger Delta coastal region, they ensure the amble supply of weaponry to the separatist gangs who organize wholesale gas pipeline sabotages and oil thefts – to ensure the castration of the country, through the deliberate destruction of the its oil economy.
The presence of these bandits and terror gangs in the border regions of Sahelian countries, serves dual purposes for the West. First, the West uses these gangs to incite internal hostilities which serve to distract, weaken, and to destroy the countries from within. Secondly, they provide additional insurance against the success of any possible integration processes such as ECOWAS, and the construction of interstate and trans-African transportation corridors between the West, North, and East of Africa. In this way African countries cannot trade with each other and are forced to route all economic transactions through western countries and institutions.
Indeed, a huge amount of factual material has been accumulated which clearly shows that the West has been purposefully investing money in creating zones of chaos throughout the continent for many years. However, thirty years after the NATO’s decimation of Libya, some discerning leaders of African countries are beginning to understand that the peoples of Africa were tired of the endless bloodshed – that the violence and chaos has to end,
For this to happen, the foreign sponsored insurrect bandit and jihadist gangs have to be decisively defeated. But the Sahelian states are confronted with the two main limitations. Individually, they are small and weak, and militarily, they are quite insufficient. This explains the on-going moves to improve the national armies of the countries of the Sahel and the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), an event which took place after the military revolution in Nigér.
Related to this, it is because in many clashes with the insurrect jihadist gangs, the forces of the Sahelian countries regularly found themselves in direct confrontation with forces of the French Foreign Legion, that is factually NATO forces, they had no other option than to reach out and seek help from the global nemesis of NATO, the Russian Federation (RF). And just as they did in the times of the African liberation wars of independence, Moscow obliged them. For Russia, who is committed to the defeat of NATO, the Sahel is yet another opportunity to challenge the global geopolitical hegemony of the combined West, to upend their neocolonial designs in Africa, and if possible, to bring the three most ancient civilizations of the planet, Russia, China, and India, of the BRICS Union , to join forces and put to end the western created plaque of crisis, so as to ensure that lasting peace and prosperity returns to the also ancient civilizations of Africa. To this ends, Moscow created the Russian Africa Corps, and assigned the highly decorated General Sergei Vladimirovich Surovikin, the very same dreaded General ‘Armageddon’ of the Syrian war lore fame, to organize and command the corps. General Surovikin has since deployed to the Sahel and has commenced his assignment.
The direct result of the arrival of Surovikin and his African Corps on the African continent is the liberation of the three Sahel countries, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Nigér from French and American neocolonialism in quick succession .The three countries have since united into a confederation – the Association of Sahel Countries. But most especially, they have also united the individual armies of their respective countries, and placed them under the unified command of the Russia African Corps. This, in itself, is an absolutely unprecedented development in Africa, especially considering that this unified command is headed by one of the best military commander of this age – the Russian military General Sergei Surovikin, who, whether formally or informally, is now the direct commander of the Armed Forces of the Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigér.
General Surovikin is making changes and reorganizing the army of the Sahel, to correct the artificially limitations imposed on the military of the Sahelian states. The backbone of this force is the military forces of Burkina Faso. Which, before the coming of Surovikin consisting of about five thousand troops, However, in the last two years of Surovikin’s active work, they have been built and bulked up by Russia to about 30 very well trained battalion tactical groups, all of which are fully equipped with heavy artillery, Multiple Launched Rocket Systems (MLRS0, and tanks. Three of these, the 19th, 12th, and 14th have been trained into highly combat ready Special Forces battalions, and two others, the Gepard [Cheetah] and Phantom, have been trained into special anti-terrorist units. Most importantly, the Burkinabe military has now got its own combat aviation unit –that is a fully fledged national air force, with its own nationals, and not French foreigners, as the fighter pilots. For this, Russia trained both the Burkinabe pilots and technical engineers in Russian military technical universities. Following the training of the Burkinabe air force personnel, a contingent of Malian forces have also recently finished their fighter-pilot trainings, while that from Nigér have arrived in Russia, and are undergoing their fighter pilot training. With the formation of an alliance-wide regional air force, it is clear that the era of the reign of the terror gangs of the Sahel is reaching its end.
Furthermore, information has it that some battalions of the Sahelian military have undergone active combat duty training, and acquired real frontline war experience in the Russian Special Military Operation (SMO), ongoing in Ukraine. It is reported that the soldiers of the 12th battalion of Burkina Faso army underwent full combat training in real war conditions on the Ukrainian SMO frontlines. Evidentially, Burkinabe soldiers of this battalion, equipped with their own mortar and artillery units, participated in the Russia SMO battles in the Zaporozhye direction. Similarly, after completing their training at the Special Forces Academy of the Russian National Guard, in Grozny, the fighters of the Gepard and Phantom Burkina Faso Special Forces battalions also participated in some of the urban battles of the Russian Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine.
With regards to the arm forces of Mali, the third and fifth battalions who are considered to be their most combat-ready units were also reported to have undergone real frontline active war training in the Special Military Operation zone in Ukraine. Having since returned home, they are now participating fully in the battles against insurgent Islamists of the Sahel. It is also believed that some contingents of Nigérian fighters are presently experiencing combat training in real conditions in the frontlines of the SMO in Ukraine.
In total, it is presumed that about two to four battalions of the armed forces of the Sahel Alliance are prepared, trained, and commissioned every three months by the General Surovikin led Russia-Africa Corps. It is also believed that General Surovikin’s immediate task is to train and commission about two hundred full-fledged combat battalions in the medium term. Presently, the number of the Armed Forces of the Alliance is approaching 120 thousand, and in the next six months, it is very likely to cross this 200 thousand benchmark .There should be no doubt that the presence of such a force in the Sahel will radically change the balance of power and the geopolitical situation in the region.
But, It is not just the number of battalions that matter. But the fire power; the type and quality of weaponry being deployed is also of great importance. In this regards, it is noted that already, some detachments of the Armed Forces of the alliance in Burkina Faso and Mali are already equipped with, and are operating, very powerful Multiple Launched Rocket Systems (MLRS) and cannon artillery. Also, their use of the sophisticated Uragan rocket systems is recorded. Obviously, very soon, the Sahelian forces will be operating their own missile and artillery units.
In terms of air power, it has been observed that in recent months, the armed forces of the Sahel Alliance have began actively using front-line aviation in the theater of their operations, In fact, it was reported that during the air assault carried out in the Sourou province in July, the Burkinabe air force used FAB 250 gliding bombs to decimate the dug-in caves of the insurgent terrorist. These are the same Russian glide bombs that are wreaking devastations in the frontlines of the SMO in Ukraine. Another important point is that, apparently, airfields located in Libya, which are under the control of Marshal Hafta, the factional leader who is supported by Moscow, have been placed at the disposal of the front-line aviation of the Sahel Armed Forces. This development, in general terms, could signify that the process of the building of a broader coalition in the region is in progress. If this goes to plan, it is possible that very soon, Marshal Haftar’s Libyan National Army, with its own full-fledged aviation, artillery, and armored group will soon fully join the coalition. In other words, Gaddafi’s dream of the deeper integration of African states is awakened, and is growing.
With every passing day, the coalition of Sahel countries is actively fighting, and every day they are liberating more and more territories that are occupied by Western backed terrorist proxies. If the scale and intensity of some specific military operations that occurred on the ground in the last few weeks are taken into account, it can be concluded that Russia has already opened a full-fledged second front against the West in Africa – with direct cost in lives of Russian servicemen.
But the situation in the Sahel is complicated – in addition to threats from jihadist terrorists, there is also a threat from the Tuareg separatists. To resolve the tangled situation, Russia is not relying only on military power but is also applying diplomacy and soft power tools as well. Russian humanitarian missions are active in the conflict zones, distributing food, medicine and relief materials to the displaced people. And, Russia has also deployed contingents of skilled diplomats to establish interethnic dialogue, and to engineer the reconciliation of the divided tribes of the Sahel.
However, the message from Russia is unambiguous and clear. To the separatist Tuareg leaders who agree to lay down their arms, it says to them that they will receive the security guarantees of the Russian Federation and that they will be accorded equal political rights with the rest of the inhabitants of the countries of the Sahel. But for those of them, and any other armed group that continue to believe in the support of the French and NATO imperialist forces, they should prepare to be decisively defeated by the formidable Surovikin and the Russian army.
This discourse was developed by rnn.org.ng from an a edited report from Global south.
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