# Africa Corps **Africa Corps** is the Russian state's successor to the [[Wagner Group]] in Africa — the same men, contracts and bases, moved under the Ministry of Defence after [[Yevgeny Prigozhin]]'s mutiny and death in 2023. It ends the fiction that Russia's African security business is private. What it inherited is the business model: regime protection for juntas and embattled presidents, paid in mining concessions, base access and political alignment. What it has not inherited is Wagner's reputation for winning, which the [[2026 Mali Attacks]] badly damaged. > [!note] Division of labor > This page owns the post-2023 **state** force. The 2014–2023 private company, its founders and its Ukraine, Syria and early Africa record are at [[Wagner Group]]. Country detail is on each country page: [[Mali]], [[Central African Republic]], [[Libya]], [[Sudan]], [[Syria]]. ## From Wagner to the Ministry | Date | Step | |---|---| | Jun 23–24, 2023 | [[Wagner Group Mutiny]] — Prigozhin's march toward Moscow ends in a Lukashenko-brokered deal | | Aug–Sep 2023 | Deputy Defence Minister [[Yunus-Bek Yevkurov]] and GRU general [[Andrey Averyanov]] tour Libya, [[Burkina Faso]], Mali and CAR to tell Wagner's clients the Russian state is taking over (WSJ reporting) | | Aug 23, 2023 | Prigozhin and co-founder [[Dmitry Utkin]] killed — see [[Prigozhin Plane Crash]] | | Late 2023 | Ministry of Defence creates "Africa Corps"; recruitment begins December 2023, with Yevkurov in charge of setting it up | | Late 2023 | The [[SVR]] takes over Wagner's influence branch, Africa Politology (per the February 2026 leak investigation below) | | Jan 2024 | First deployment under the new name: about 100 personnel to Burkina Faso | | Nov 7, 2024 | UK sanctions Africa Corps and Averyanov — the first G7 country to sanction the force directly | | Jun 6, 2025 | Wagner announces it is leaving Mali — "Mission accomplished. Private Military Company Wagner returns home." Africa Corps says nothing changes and its contingent stays | | Apr 25–27, 2026 | JNIM and Tuareg rebels launch the offensive that kills Mali's defence minister; Africa Corps confirms its withdrawal from Kidal | The exact date of the founding announcement is not established in primary sources; the safe statement is that the force was created by the Ministry of Defence in late 2023 and began recruiting in December 2023. Wikipedia and analysts describe [[Andrey Averyanov]], commander of the GRU sabotage unit [[Unit 29155]], as believed to command it; that has not been officially confirmed. ## Three agencies split the Wagner estate Wagner was one company doing three jobs. The state has divided them: | Wagner function | Successor | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Fighting and regime protection | **Africa Corps**, Ministry of Defence, GRU-supervised | OSW, CNBC, AP reporting 2024–2025 | | Influence operations — lobbying, paid media, fake accounts | **[[SVR]]**, Russia's foreign intelligence service, which took control of [[Africa Politology]] at the end of 2023 | Leaked internal files, Forbidden Stories / All Eyes On Wagner consortium, Feb 2026 | | Mining and money | Contested — the old Prigozhin companies still operate in [[Central African Republic]] | AFP Dec 2025; DW Mar 2026 | The February 2026 investigation, built from 76 leaked internal files (1,431 pages) sent anonymously to *The Continent* and reported by a consortium including Forbidden Stories, All Eyes On Wagner, Dossier Center, openDemocracy and iStories, found that the SVR-run unit had about 98 operatives by May 2024 and a budget of roughly $750,000 a month through October 2024. It ran campaigns in some 34 countries in Africa and Latin America; in August 2024 alone it paid about $340,000 for 516 articles, posts and videos. The leak shows the SVR sometimes competing and sometimes coordinating with the Ministry of Defence that runs Africa Corps. ## Where it is All strength figures are estimates and many come from Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), which is a party to the war and whose own numbers conflict. | Country | Reported presence | Note | |---|---|---| | [[Mali]] | About 2,000 (Reuters, Al Jazeera, Apr 2026); about 1,000 by an Oct 2026 estimate | Flagship deployment; lost Kidal in April 2026 | | [[Libya]] | 800–1,800 by different estimates | Air bases at al-Jufra, Brak al-Shati and others being upgraded; the logistics hub after Russia lost Syria | | Burkina Faso | About 100 from Jan 2024, planned 300 | Junta protection | | [[Niger]] | About 200–300 | Helped repel an Islamic State attack on Niamey airport in Jan 2026; gave ground and air support to loyalists against the Aug 28–29, 2026 mutiny at Air Base 101 | | [[Central African Republic]] | Wagner brand still present as of early 2026; handover to Africa Corps reported as pending | Touadéra reportedly preferred Wagner because Africa Corps wants cash; a reported Sept 2026 compromise leaves Wagner-era networks beside a limited Africa Corps force (single source) | | Equatorial Guinea | Up to 200 (2024) | Presidential protection | | Togo | About 300–350 (2026) | Supply route from the port of Lomé to Bamako | HUR put the total at about 8,000 across nine countries in July 2025, then at 4,618 at the end of 2025 rising to 6,180 by July 2026. The two series cannot both be right, and neither has been independently verified. ## What Russia is buying, and what it is losing The [[Security-for-Minerals]] trade is the through-line. In Mali, Russia's Yadran holds 38% of a planned national gold refinery; in CAR, Prigozhin-era companies hold gold and diamond concessions; in Libya, Africa Corps holds the air bases that move men and supplies to the Sahel and, reportedly, arms to Sudan's [[Rapid Support Forces]]. The [[2026 Mali Attacks]] tested whether the state version of the product works. The Kidal regional governor reportedly warned the Russians three days ahead; they withdrew from Kidal under a deal with the rebels, left equipment behind, and later lost further northern posts. Russia's Ministry of Defence claimed Africa Corps had foiled a coup and protected the presidential palace. Analyst Ulf Laessing called the episode a "disaster" for Russia. By September 2026 Africa Corps was still in Mali, still taking casualties, and was named in a Bellingcat, Jeune Afrique and The Sentry investigation of drone strikes that hit civilians. > [!question] Unverified > A claim that the Kremlin handed operational control of Africa Corps to oligarch [[Gennady Timchenko]] could not be sourced. The likely origin is a 2023 Wall Street Journal report that a *different* company, PMC Redut, is reportedly funded by Timchenko. Do not repeat the Africa Corps claim without a source. ## Sanctions | Date | Authority | Action | |---|---|---| | Nov 7, 2024 | United Kingdom | Africa Corps and Andrey Averyanov designated under the Libya sanctions regulations | | Dec 16, 2024 | European Union | Averyanov listed | | — | United States | No OFAC designation of Africa Corps found as of Oct 2026 | In February 2026 the US Treasury *removed* sanctions on Mali's defence minister Sadio Camara and two other officers who had been listed for their Wagner ties — a sign that Washington was courting the Sahel juntas rather than isolating them. ## See Also - [[Wagner Group]] · [[Yevgeny Prigozhin]] · [[Dmitry Utkin]] · [[Andrey Averyanov]] - [[Mali]] · [[Libya]] · [[Central African Republic]] · [[Sudan]] · [[Syria]] - [[2026 Mali Attacks]] · [[Alliance of Sahel States]] · [[Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin]] - [[Private Military Company]] · [[Security-for-Minerals]] · [[Conflict Minerals Hub]] - [[GRU]] · [[SVR]] · [[Russia]] · [[Russian Influence]]