Russian Mercs leave Mali?

As Russian Wagner mercenaries leave Mali, experts say that remaining Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps is more than just ‘Wagner rebranded’.

Read more: https://t.co/dMzOdThHWM pic.twitter.com/CrC8LhLOVt

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 16, 2025

Or maybe just replaced by other Russian Mercenaries?

Africacorps vs Wagner group. 

as Wagner leaves, security advisers from the Africa Corps, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary group, will remain in their place, ensuring a lingering presence of Russian forces.Mali’s government has, for decades, been embroiled in a conflict with ethnic Tuareg separatists in the Sahara Desert, as well as fighters affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda. Previously, French forces assisted the Malian government, but they withdrew after a military coup in 2021. The latest round of fighting erupted in 2023 when Bamako’s military government mounted a new offensive against the rebels. “The Malian junta invited Wagner and Russia to support them in Mali – this really stemmed from frustration with the [military] support provided by France and other Western partners,” Flore Berger, a senior analyst at the Global Initiative’s North Africa and Sahel Observatory, told Al Jazeera. “They felt that, despite years of help, the security situation hadn’t improved, and Western countries kept pressuring them to return to civilian rule, organise elections, etc. Russia, through Wagner, on the other hand, offered support without those conditions. It was seen as a more respectful and reliable partner that wouldn’t interfere in Mali’s political choices.”

More trouble for Nigeria

Heavy rains have triggered floods across central Nigeria, killing over 150 people and displacing thousands. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reports from the ground, where communities are trying to salvage what’s left of their destroyed homes. pic.twitter.com/XOZqSpCkio

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 1, 2025

mining deaths in Africa

 

“Africa’s mining industry faces complex and interlinked challenges.”

Claude Kabemba, CEO of Southern Africa Resource Watch, on the root causes of Africa’s mining tragedies and rising demand for its minerals after 260 miners were rescued in South Africa. pic.twitter.com/y9FAovtSLo

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 27, 2025

Sudan's gold

African news

 

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the peacemaking of South Africa in the Ukraine war is mentioned here.

more here

conspiracy theory: save the world from global warming by keeping Africa poor

I have seen this pointed out elsewhere: The idea that raising prices for oil and other forms of energy lead to increased poverty.

the right wing conspiracy site Gateway pundit links to an article where Magette Wade lays out the details.

  

Wade highlights the hypocrisy of climate activists dictating restrictive energy policies from comfortable offices in Paris, London, and New York—policies that spur development in countries that haven't even had the chance to grow. “Africa remains poor because it lacks access to energy,” she explains. No energy means no industry. And no industry means no independence.

Most troubling, according to Wade, is that this system is enabled by African leaders themselves. “Why do the leaders of Senegal or Africa allow this to happen? For the same reason they allowed foreign aid to be the only relationship we had with the West,” she says. It’s a silent deal: African governments accept these imposed conditions and receive money, political favors, and international legitimacy—without ever being accountable to their people. The latest form of this control is called “climate aid.”  

A perverse twist on cooperation, climate aid tells African nations: “Don’t develop your own resources. Don’t use fossil fuels. And we’ll give you money.” But that money doesn’t create jobs or industry. It only finances bureaucracies and deepens dependency.  

 

 environmentalism is a two edged sword: as we see in the Philppines, the emphasis on organic farming (which is our business by the way) leads to healthier food, but it does mean a lower harvest and higher food prices. So they have to import food for the poor in the slums of Manila.

And stopping mining, which destroyed the environment because the mines were not forced to clean up their garbage, actually led to mom and pop mines, which were not reggulated at all and more prone to accidents and envirnomnetal destruction. Ditto for forestry: Stopping legal ways to harvest trees led to illegal cutting of trees (all it takes is a bribe to local authorities).

I suspect a similar problem in Africa, where those educated in the western mindset of environmentalism are unable or unwilling to see the big picture.

what's up in the DRC?

 StrategyPage discusses the DRC conflict and possibilities of peace. StrategyPage discusses it from a historical and geopolitical point of view

an African point of view: