—– Plans to Unseat President Weah, Others……
IPNEWS: For the second time now, Michael Rubin, continues to alarm the infiltration of the Wagner Group, the mercenary army run by Vladimir Putin’s ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, that is currently instrumental in spearheading Russia’s War on Ukraine, into West Africa.
Michael Rubin tells the Washington Examiner, that the Wagner Group is now on the offensive across Africa, particularly West Africa, with plans to topper three governments, according to Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
According to Michael Rubin, it appears that the Wagner Group has its sights on three other West African countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast. Each has suffered past unrest. Whereas often United Nations peacekeeping missions cost billions of dollars, extend decades, and achieve only marginal results, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast are the three countries the UN points to as the exception that proves the rule.
Rubin in an article published in the Examiner, stated that after the failing of the Russians in Mozambique, the Wagner Group sunk roots into the Central Africa Republic and embraced juntas if not masterminded their coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea. In each of these four cases, Wagner takes advantage of the implosion of French influence. While it seeks to loot each country’s rich natural resources, an activity in which France also participated in decades past, Wagner mercenaries are also willing to do what the French advisers will not. In Mali, for example, that includes targeting ethnic Fulanis and other gross human rights violations.
“NOW, reason why Wagner now targets these three are varied. Incumbent president George Weah in Liberia and Julius Maada Bio in Sierra Leone both mismanages their respective countries. At the height of a food crisis, for example, Weah absconded on a six-week multimillion-dollar junket to Qatar, Monaco, and the United States. Such absences are dangerous: When Maada Bio was in the United Kingdom last August, anti-government protesters egged on and paid by Wagner instigated an insurrection meant to force his ouster.”
“Sierra Leone faces a similar conundrum as incompetent leadership leads to stagnation, corruption, and popular unease. As a result, the country’s post-war recovery is now at a tipping point. In other words, the country that popularized the concept of “blood diamonds” may soon be in for a Russia-inspired repeat.”
“While the Ivory Coast was long one of the most stable countries in West Africa and a regional economic powerhouse, it too is under threat. The Wagner Group has recruited the country for its Ukraine fight. And Russian proxies in Mali and Burkina Faso covet the country’s natural resources.” Michael Rubin stated.
Rubin furthermore warned American policymakers that they must take the possibility that the Wagner Group is not working alone. Too often, U.S. analysts pigeonhole the Wagner Group problem and the China threat. But what if the contracts Wagner seeks from corrupt leaders are meant as proxies for Chinese interests? The U.S. reacts with panic when China seeks to upgrade ports and build possible navy bases on the Atlantic Ocean, but what if Wagner-tied businesses won those contracts and simply upgraded ports to Chinese specifications? If this is not yet a concern in Washington, it is only because diplomats are not escaping embassy compounds or capital cities because it is certainly a concern among those seeking a better future in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast.
At the U.S.-Africa Leadership Summit, President Joe Biden said the U.S. would no longer ignore Africa. Two months later, however, he has put Africa on the back burner. Unfortunately, neither Moscow nor Beijing has.
Michael Rubin has repeated placed the Wagner Group maneuvers in West Africa at the feet of Melee Kermue, a former U.S. convict, by allowing Wagner Group members to Monrovia under the disguse of being Businessmen.
“Wagner’s activities in the region appear coordinated by Melee Kermue, a former U.S. convict whom Sergei Berdnikov, Russia’s ambassador in Ghana, appointed to be Russia’s honorary consul-general in Liberia. He reportedly allowed Wagner experts to come into the country under the guise of businessmen. While Liberia heads to the polls this autumn, Weah’s general incompetence suggests Wagner may be accelerating plans for a coup in order to prevent more competent leadership from solidifying the country’s economy and relations with the U.S.” Michael Rubin stated.
In January 2023, Melee Kermue, dismissed claims by Michael Rubin, linking him to the Wagner Group and vowed to file a legal suit against Michael Rubin and the Washington Examiner. IPNEWS is yet to determine whether or not the legal suit was filed.
On Monday, March 13, Italian Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto told EU and NATO Defense chiefs to keep an eye in monitoring Russian infiltration in Africa.
Crosetto stated that “We must acknowledge that uncontrolled and continuous immigration, added to the economic and social crisis, becomes a way to hit the most exposed countries, above all Italy”
He said that the exponential increase of the migratory phenomenon that starts from the African coasts is, to a considerable extent, also part of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare that the Wagner division, mercenaries in the pay of Russia, is implementing, using its significant weight in some countries Africans.
“Just as the EU, NATO and the West have realized that cyber attacks were part of the global confrontation that the Ukrainian conflict has opened, today it would be appropriate for them to understand that the southern European front is also becoming more dangerous every day. They should also take note that uncontrolled and continuous immigration, added to the economic and social crisis, becomes a way to hit the most exposed countries, above all Italy, and their geostrategic choices, clear and sharp”, said Crosetto.
“The Atlantic Alliance consolidates if the problems that arise from collective choices are also shared, but it runs the risk of cracking if the countries most exposed to retaliation of various kinds (such as opening the immigration “taps” by some States) are left alone”, concluded the minister.
(Courtesy of Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.)
