‘Economic incentives are limited’: What does Russia really offer Africa?

In 2019, I travelled to Berengo Palace, outside Bangui, to interview Russian mercenaries. Once the home of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the Central African Republic’s self-crowned emperor, it was now occupied by fighters from the Wagner Group. One of the first things they told me was not about the country they had come to defend, but the country they had left. Seven years later, Wagner’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is dead. In the Sahel, Wagner has given way to Africa Corps, controlled by Russia’s Ministry of Defence. Moscow is fighting a war in Ukraine, where Africans have been recruited, some under false pretences. An investigation by Journalists for Justice documented 502 African deaths by June 2026.