Three years ago, Mali's military junta expelled French troops, a two-fingered gesture to the old conial power that was applauded by many in the country, In France's place came Russian mercenaries promising protection for the junta and defeat of a dogged Islamist insurgency.
Today, as al-Qaida-affiliated Jama a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) encircles the capital Bamako with a crushing fuel blockade, and with talk of yet another coup, it is clear the Russians have brought neither peace nor stability.
Almost without the world noticing, the Sahel has become the epicentre of global terrorism. More than half of terrorism-related deaths last year took place in the semi-arid strip south of the Sahara, according to the Global Terrorism Index, with groups affiliated with Isis and al-Qaeda responsible for most.
In neighbouring Burkina Faso, which is top of the terrorism list in terms of deaths, something similar is happening even if the regime itself is not yet teetering.
There, the government of another leader who came to power in a coup, Ibrahim Traoré - whose nationalist rhetoric has made him a hero to many - controls less than half the country's territory, with JNIM exerting authority over much of the rest.
It was Traoré who told his fellow African leaders to
"stop behaving like puppets every time the imperialists pull the strings". But Sahelian countries are in danger of swapping one kind of imperialism for another. Russian mercenaries, initially with Wagner and now with its replacement Africa Corps, have been linked with human rights abuses. In Mali, Russians have shown scant appetite for countering the Bamako siege and more for protecting gold mines.
Jihadism and Russia: a toxic mix in the Sahel.
West needs a strategy to counter southern spread of instability into coastal states archive.ph/AZl1q #ISIS #AlQaida #AfricaCorps #Islamism #Jihadism #terrorism