GI-TOC & HSS: Mercenaries and Illicit Markets
Report edited by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation
Mercenaries and Illicit Markets: Russia's Africa Corps and the Business of Conflict
Over the past decade, Russia has expanded its influence in Africa, offering an alternative to Western and former colonial powers. With no colonial history on the continent, Russia supported African liberation movements during the Cold War, fostering strong ties. Though its influence waned in the 1990s, it revived under President Vladimir Putin, allowing Russia to re-establish strategic relationships on the continent.
The Wagner Group mercenary force and its successor, the Africa Corps, have played a pivotal and controversial role in growing Russia’s influence on the continent. Initially a covert proxy of the Russian state able to exercise some deniability, the Wagner Group soon became the most influential and public form of Russian engagement in Africa, particularly in the Sahel and Central Africa. It is unique not only in the scale and boldness of its activities, but also in how it navigated the grey zone where licit and illicit economies meld.
The digital edition is available for free download: Mercenaries and Illicit Markets - Russia's Africa Corps and the Business of Conflict (10,71 MB)