We have in mind these old films of barbouzes where Westerners overwhelmed by heat plot with African soldiers under sluggish fans. The truth of today does not seem so far removed from these clichés when Russian mercenaries affiliated with Putin point their noses in Mali to take market share there at the first echoes of tensions with France. For the makeshift soldiers of the Wagner group, this is a new vein to be exploited, like a dozen others on the African continent. For Moscow, which is pulling the strings, it is a stealthy and economical way to advance its pawns on this ground that the USSR was already disputing with the Europeans. For the French contingents deployed in the Sahel since 2013 against Daesh and al-Qaida, it is above all a Sisyphus mission where there is nothing to gain, fors honor,and where fifty-seven of theirs lost their lives.
France has too many worries in Mali not to take a dim view of the arrival of these mercenaries accused of abuses almost
This article is for subscribers only.
You have 53% left to discover.
Freedom is also to go to the end of a debate.
Continue reading your article for € 1 the first month
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed?
Log in