Russia Expands Africa Corps Despite Doubts Over Its Effectiveness, Intel Says

Russia has expanded its Africa Corps by roughly one-third and deployed personnel to seven additional countries despite internal doubts about the force’s effectiveness against insurgent groups, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said.The number of Africa Corps personnel deployed outside Russia increased from 4,618 at the end of 2025 to 6,180 by July 2026, according to the Military Intelligence of Ukraine (HUR). That represents an increase of more than 1,500 personnel.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.HUR said additional contingents had been sent to Togo, Madagascar, Seychelles, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Sri Lanka.The Africa Corps is controlled by the Russian Ministry of Defense and was formed from remnants of the Wagner private military company after the death of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Russia has used the force to preserve and expand its military and political influence on the continent.The corps remains combat-capable but is not prepared to conduct asymmetric operations against numerous insurgent groups, HUR said, adding that its personnel are primarily trained for security and advisory missions.The intelligence agency said excessive bureaucracy, a rigid chain of command and a lack of initiative among field commanders had slowed decision-making.By HUR’s account, units in Russia’s Africa Corps must often wait for authorization from Moscow before responding to insurgent operations. Those delays have contributed to the loss of strategically important sites, personnel, equipment and territory, particularly in Mali. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Drones Make Orchestrating Russia’s Elections Tougher Normally in Russia, the point of national elections is a state-controlled vote overwhelmingly endorsing stability and the man running the Kremlin. That was before Ukrainian drones. In April, Malian rebels launched a major offensive against the Russian-backed government, with Russian troops and convoys coming under constant attack in the ensuing months.In early July, insurgents ambushed Russian and Malian forces traveling in a convoy near Tabrichat in Mali’s northeastern Gao region, according to an earlier HUR statement. Russian personnel withdrew during the attack and left Malian troops without ground or air support. HUR reported that at least 60 Malian soldiers were killed and 30 captured, though those figures could not be independently confirmed.HUR said the setbacks had caused dissatisfaction among the military-led governments of Mali and Burkina Faso, which use their national budgets to pay for Russian personnel.The agency added that Russia would need to deploy several times more personnel and equipment for the Africa Corps to significantly change the security situation in favor of its partner governments.Moscow has nevertheless supplied the corps with relatively modern armored vehicles, including BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-82A armored personnel carriers, Tigr vehicles fitted with Arbalet weapon stations and heavily protected Ural trucks, the agency said. Some of that equipment has not been made available to Russian units fighting in Ukraine.The agency said the financing model combines official government payments with arrangements previously associated with Wagner. In exchange for security services, Moscow also gains access to mineral resources.Russia has continued rebuilding its influence network in Africa since Wagner’s restructuring. HUR previously said the Kremlin uses military deployments, political influence operations and disinformation to support friendly governments, gain access to natural resources and weaken Western influence across the continent.Despite its rapid expansion, however, the Africa Corps has not been able to shift the balance against insurgent forces without a much larger commitment from Moscow.In 2024, Kyiv Post obtained an exclusive photo from sources in Ukraine’s defense and security sector showing Tuareg rebels posing with a Ukrainian flag after having just dealt a major defeat to Russian state-funded Wagner mercenaries in Mali. EXCLUSIVE: Rebels in Mali Display Ukrainian Flag After Wagner DefeatKyiv Post obtained an exclusive photo of Tuareg rebels posing with a Ukrainian flag after defeating Wagner mercenaries over the weekend.https://t.co/yIbm0tPXnM— KyivPost (@KyivPost) July 29, 2024 The photo seems to indicate the Tuaregs’ support for Ukraine – which has been pursuing Wagner mercenaries across the African continent.Andriy Yusov, a HUR representative, said the rebels received “necessary information” for their operations.Wagner mercenaries have helped the Russian government extract natural resources in Africa, including, according to The Blood Gold Report, an estimated $2.5 billion worth of gold in the past two years, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin has used to help fund his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ongoing since February 2022.Ukraine, Russia’s shadow war in Africa?Kyiv has battled Russian forces in Africa during isolated operations in the past.In June 2024, Kyiv Post obtained exclusive video allegedly showing Ukrainian special forces working with Syrian rebels against Russian mercenaries in Syria, before the country’s Moscow-backed regime was ousted later the same year.In February 2024, Kyiv Post received exclusive video allegedly showing Ukrainian special forces interrogating captured Wagner mercenaries in the Republic of Sudan. In the video, the prisoners admit that their task had been to go to Sudan and overthrow the local government. A month prior, another video, obtained by Kyiv Post, allegedly showed Ukrainian drones destroying “Russian mercenaries” and their allied forces in Sudan.Russia’s state-funded news agency, Russia Today (RT), claimed that HUR has been “training local Tuareg separatist militants, as well as covertly bringing at least two groups of them to Ukraine to teach them to use FPV drones,” citing the Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel GREY ZONE. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.