Russian instructors arrived on Wednesday in Niamey, which also received its first delivery of Russian military equipment as part of the new security cooperation between Niamey and Moscow, Nigerien public television announced Thursday evening. On Friday, Africa Corps (or The African Corps according to its English account), seen as the successor to the Wagner paramilitary company in Africa, confirmed its arrival in the country. Nigerien public television Télé Sahel announced that it had witnessed on Wednesday
“the arrival in Niamey of an Iliouchine-76, a Russian wide-body aircraft, carrying latest generation military equipment with military instructors from the Russian ministry on board. of the defense"
.
The Russian Federation will
“endow”
Niger and
“install an anti-aircraft defense system”
capable of
“ensuring total control of our airspace”
, affirmed Nigerien television, showing images filmed at night of the big -Russian carrier landing at the airport in the capital Niamey. Russian military instructors, whose number was not specified,
“will provide quality training”
to Nigerien soldiers
“for efficient use of the said system
,” added public television.
“We are here to develop military cooperation between Russia and Niger”
,
“train the Niger army and help it use the military equipment that has just arrived”
,
“equipment of different military specialties”
, he said. one of the Russian instructors declared on this television.
“The first flight with soldiers and volunteers of the African Corps has arrived in Niger
,” the Africa Corps group wrote on Friday on its official Telegram account, where it claims to be an entity of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Africa Corps, new avatar of Russian influence in Africa
The Africa Corps group is seen as a new avatar of Russian influence in Africa, after Wagner, whose famous leader Evgeni Prigojine died in a plane crash in 2023, shortly after an aborted armed revolt against Russian power. In January, Africa Corps had already claimed on Telegram the sending of units to Burkina Faso. According to a memo from the European Parliament's research service, the group was created under the auspices of the Russian Defense Ministry in December 2023 in order to
"consolidate the former assets of the Wagner Group under government control"
.
On March 26, the head of the military regime in Niger, General Abdourahamane Tiani, spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss in particular the
"strengthening"
of their security cooperation,
"to face current threats"
, according to an official Nigerien press release, while jihadist attacks undermine the Sahel. In December, a Russian delegation came to discuss with the Nigerien military in Niamey, and agreements strengthening military cooperation between the two countries were signed. In mid-March, Niger denounced with
“immediate effect”
the military cooperation agreement with the United States, calling into question the presence of a little more than 1,000 American soldiers in Niger.
Niger, like neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, has been facing recurring and deadly jihadist violence for years, perpetrated by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group. In these three countries, the governments civilians have been overthrown by successive military coups since 2020. These three former French colonies then turned their backs on Paris and moved economically and militarily closer to new partners, including Russia, before regrouping within the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) with the aim of creating a federation.