ADF STAFF
Russia has added more armed men to its Sahel operations, this time in the form of the Bear Brigade, which has operated in Burkina Faso since May.
Experts say the Bear Brigade is among an estimated 300 Russian security operatives in Burkina Faso, which includes members of Russian military intelligence, the GRU.
About 30 Bear Brigade members have taken up residence in Ouagadougou and two nearby military bases. They are training forces loyal to junta leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré and enhancing his personal security apparatus after an alleged countercoup attempt in September 2023.
Experts say Traoré is an example of coup leaders using Russian fighters to protect themselves rather than fighting rebels.
Formed in Russian-occupied Crimea in March 2023, the Bear Brigade became part of the Ministry of Defense two months later as the 81st Specialized Volunteer Brigade. In Burkina Faso, it operates parallel to Russia’s Africa Corps unit, the government-run successor to the mercenary Wagner Group.
The humanitarian group Stop Wagner posted on the social platform X: “The violence perpetrated by BEAR’s mercenaries on civilians is well known in Ukraine and could be unfortunately repeated in #Sahel. The population is already suffering from Wagner’s abuses. BEAR’s arrival augurs worse …”
Russia is extending its reach in Africa through armed volunteers such as the Bear Brigade even as its national military continues to lose troops in Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Russian government figures say 45,000 soldiers have died. Independent investigators in Russia and elsewhere put the number between 64,000 and 83,000 but say the true number could be twice that.
The Russian government appears to be offsetting the presence of several hundred Africa Corps and Bear Brigade members by recruiting thousands of Africans to fight in Ukraine. Recently, men from Sierra Leone to Somalia have turned up on the battlefield as soldiers or been taken prisoner.
Africa Corps — and Wagner before it — have suffered defeats in Africa. Most notably more than 80 Russians with Africa Corps died in late July in an ambush by al-Qaida-linked Tuareg fighters in northern Mali.
Rebels said the deaths were in retaliation for Africa Corps/Wagner attacks on Malians. Russian mercenaries have a history of violence and human rights violations in the Sahel. One example is the Moura massacre in which Wagner forces helped Malian soldiers kill 300 civilians in a market.
Lou Osborn, an analyst at the open-source research group All Eyes on Wagner, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) that Russia’s losses in Mali suggest that its heavy-handed approach may be backfiring.
“Previously, the Malian authorities managed to conclude agreements with the Tuaregs in order to focus on the jihadists,” he told RFE/RL. “Now this is no longer the case; all agreements have been violated, not least because of how cruelly the Malian Army and Russian mercenaries behave toward all opponents without exception.”
Although junta leaders have recruited Africa Corps and the Bear Brigade to help them rein in rebels, the arrival of Russians has caused the number of Sahelian deaths from rebel violence to nearly triple to more than 11,600 since the Malian coup in 2020.
It seems unlikely that adding more Russian fighters to the Sahel will resolve the countries’ underlying problems, according to Kyle Robertson, a researcher at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“Paradoxically, Russia’s inability to improve the counterterrorism threat only deepens the dependence of Sahel militaries on its assistance,” Robertson wrote recently for the institute. “The worsening situation questions the long-term viability of regimes that have based their credibility on curtailing Islamist violence.”
