Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group in Niger takes advantage of an increased anti -France feeling
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Wearing tweed jacket, gold watch, and heavy ring embossed with African outlines, Kémi Séba spoke directly into her phone's camera from what appeared to be suburban parking lot. She began with "My Family", appealing to her over 1 million followers. "I have said before that there will come a time when there will be a series of coups in Africa to remove the pawns of French colonialism. Now we have come to the age of the African hurricane." In thousands of comments below the video, which was first broadcast live on Facebook last week, fans compared Mr. Séba to American civil rights activist Malcolm X and praised him as voice of a generation. An activist followed for her anti-colonial rhetoric and belief in the Pan-Africanism movement, Kemi Séba has ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin-affiliated organizations. He garnered a celebrity on social media and on television talk shows in French-speaking Africa for his fiery rhetoric against French foreign policy. But there is a darker truth in his words Mr. Séba is funded by the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary company, an international consortium of investigative journalists that was uncovered earlier this year. Mr. Séba did not deny allegations that his fighters were financially supported by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been accused of human rights abuses in both Ukraine and Africa. But Mr. Séba is just one player in Mr. Prigozhin's massive propaganda machine that sows disinformation and fuels anti-colonial fervor through social media and other channels. Last week's coup Niger, a poor country in West Africa rich mineral deposits, provided fertile ground for such activity. A broad popular movement is gaining strength across West Africa, shaped by anger at the region's former colonizer, France. "This blow has been great relief for us," said Ibrahim Abdoulaye, who works as a chef at Chez Aris Fast Food, chain of takeaway stores in Niger's capital, Niamey. "It's an opportunity for us Nigerians to think about a new Niger." An anti-French movement is gathering steam in West Africa and Russia is waiting on the flank. France's deep roots in region mean that many countries still use French as the official language and rely on France for their security and development, especially in Sahel, where an Islamist revolt is growing. But many in Niger accuse France of exploiting country's crumbling roads, hospitals and schools, and its rich uranium deposits, which are among the largest in world. "Even though we don't have the means to extract these resources, they still belong to us," Abdoulaye said. He was able to exploit and strengthen precisely this sentiment, allowing Wagner to reframe coups like those in Niger as acts of courageous resistance against colonial oppressors. According to African Center Strategic Studies, undermining democracy in the African continent, where authoritarian governments provide an open environment for Moscow's influence, has been "strategic goal" of Russian foreign policy 20 years. "Everyone is gathering around the current junta. To reach out and put an end to this imperialism," said Aminatou Balde Boubacar, a businesswoman in Niamey who said she supported last week's coup. ABC spoke to several people in Niamey who compared their country's plight to that of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, two countries that have had their own military coups and whose leaders have allied with the Niger junta. "After Mali, after Burkina, today is Niger. We don't know which country it will be tomorrow," Boubacar said. The July coup, in which presidential guards arrested the democratically elected president Mohamed Bazoum, sent shock waves across Africa and the West. "This coup was really unexpected," said Leonardo Villalón, professor of African politics at the University of Florida and an expert in the Sahel region. According to Professor Villalón, the coup differed from its predecessors in Niger, Mali or Burkina Faso, particularly in the absence of any precipitating political crisis. "It was neither predictable nor inevitable," he added. "Things were going in the direction of [the overthrown president Bazoum]. He was actually finding their footing and some of his initiatives were seen quite positively." Niger's newly declared leader, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, has since reportedly ordered extensive arrests, closed most of the country's airspace borders, and severed diplomatic ties with the United States France. Since taking power, he has refused to negotiate with the bloc of West African countries known as ECOWAS, which has threatened to reinstate Bazoum and use military force against the junta unless he withdraws. The block's deadline to reinstate Mr. Bazoum has passed, but so far there has been no sign of military inte