Russia is doubling down on its military role in Africa despite the growing demands of its war in Ukraine, with the latest example featuring a direct intervention in recent days by Russian military forces to help Niger’s military junta suppress a mutiny.
The intervention on Aug. 29 marked the second time this year that Russian troops have operated directly alongside forces of the ruling junta in Niger’s capital city of Niamey, underscoring Moscow’s role as security guarantor for the gold and Uranium-rich West African nation, which has been battling Islamist insurgents for more than a decade.
Niger, situated in Africa’s Sahel region, is home to significant uranium deposits, with roughly 6% of the world’s identified resources of the nuclear material. The country was the source of some 25.4% of uranium delivered to European Union utilities prior to disruptions following a 2023 coup that installed the junta that now holds sway in Niamey.
Russian diplomatic and military operations have risen in the country during the years since, and appear to have expanded in scope since 2024, when the then-Biden administration in Washington withdrew a key contingent of about 1,000 U.S. forces from what had been a strategic drone base in Niger at the request of the ruling junta.
The withdrawal made global headlines and drew behind-the-scenes criticism from U.S. national security officials over the prospect of losing a strategic U.S. base that had been used for counterterrorism missions against regional extremists.
The latest developments point to a dynamic of growing complexity, with Russian forces now active in a conflict that intersects with great power nuclear competition and also increasingly involves forces from Algeria, which borders Niger to the north and is a close Russian partner in the Arab world.
On Aug. 29, a mutinous faction of young Niger military officers suddenly led a series of assaults across the capital of Niamey. Local sources say the group aimed to remove the country’s junta leader, President Abdourahamane Tiani, in a coup.
Mr. Tiani himself came to power in 2023 after overthrowing the then-democratically elected government in Niamey.
Junta forces loyal to Mr. Tiani fought back against the Aug. 29 mutiny, and the Russian military intervention, which included both ground forces and aerial assets, tipped the balance in favor of the loyalists, who succeeded in crushing the mutiny.
“This incident proved to the government that Russia remains a reliable security partner not just in regard to terrorist threats but, internal security as well,” a Niger counterterrorism expert told The Washington Times on condition of anonymity from Niamey.
Algeria, which has traditionally been reluctant to involve its combat forces in the messy politics of Sub-Saharan Africa, is engaging increasingly in Niger, announcing earlier this month that it had donated two Mi-24V attack helicopters and two Mi-171 transport helicopters to the ruling junta in Niamey.
Algeria then made the unprecedented move of deploying four SU-30 fighter jets, an IL-76 transport aircraft and an aerial refueling tanker to Niger in response to the Aug. 29 mutiny — the most significant publicly acknowledged deployment of Algerian combat aircraft abroad since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
It is unclear under which mandate the Algerian forces were deployed. Algeria’s constitution requires parliamentary approval for the President to deploy forces abroad.
Strategic airport
Friction within Niger’s ruling junta has centered around a military facility adjacent to Niamey airport, which formerly housed U.S. forces.
The airport is also home to a large uranium shipment at the center of a separate dispute between the junta and the government of France.
Some 1,050 metric tons of yellowcake uranium worth approximately $200 million are believed to be stored at the airport.
“National troops repelled these attacks with the assistance of the Russian Ministry of Defense’s African Corps,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The ministry also accused “former European colonial powers” of inciting extremist violence in the region, an apparent allusion to France.
Russia’s “Africa Corps” is a Russian Defense Ministry-controlled expeditionary force that the Kremlin created in recent years to replace what had been the mercenary Wagner Group, which Moscow had struggled to control.
The “Africa Corps” troops burst into action in Niger earlier this year, intervening to help defend the airport in Niamey during an attack on the facility by Islamic State extremists from the ISIS-Sahel group.
The airport, formally known as the Diori Hamini International Airport, is home to the logistics, command and advisory hub in Niger for Russia’s Africa Corps forces.
Few sites better encapsulate the region’s geopolitics than Base 101 at the airport. The strategically important complex, which formerly hosted American troops, now houses a Russian base. It is also home to a joint command of the Alliance of Sahel States, a regional bloc comprising the pro-Russian and military-led governments of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
The airport has been the scene of three battles this year, two featuring attacks by ISIS-Sahel and al Qaeda-linked militants, and the third stemming from the Aug. 29 junta mutiny.
“With Russian help, the situation has been brought somewhat under control,” said Adal Rhoubeid, a former security adviser to Mohamed Bazoum, who served as Niger’s democratically elected president prior to being overthrown and detained by the military in 2023.
“But the causes of the instability are still there: the army is unable to fight efficiently against the terrorist groups. And the current regime struggles to deliver economic results for the people,” said Mr. Rhoubeid.
Russia’s presence in the country appears to have been directly targeted by the mutineers. A New York Times report quoting an unnamed Niger diplomat said Russian troops were briefly held hostage by the mutineers.
According to Russian newspaper Kommersant, the forces carrying out the mutiny also attempted to enter the Bravia Hotel in Niamey, where Russian Embassy staff and lawmakers attending an Alliance of Sahel States gathering were staying.
The Uranium factor
Niamey’s airport also holds roughly 1,050 metric tons of yellowcake, a uranium concentrate used in the production of nuclear energy.
Niger moved the uranium from the Somair mine after Niger’s junta nationalized what had been a French-controlled mining operation, although France’s state-backed nuclear fuel multinational corporation, Orano, still claims rights to the stockpile.
The French newspaper Le Monde has reported that Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, had planned to purchase and transport at least part of the uranium stockpile overland through areas of Burkina Faso threatened by Islamist militants to the Togolese port of Lomé.
However, French pressure has complicated the proposed shipment. Orano secured an international arbitration ruling last year barring Niger from transferring the uranium. More recently, Romania’s state-controlled nuclear producer, Nuclearelectrica, has reportedly expressed interest in purchasing part of the stockpile.
Concerns that Niger’s uranium could fall into the wrong hands are hardly new. In 2002, Niger’s then president asked for American assistance to protect the nuclear material, according to a declassified CIA report.
The decades since have seen Niger battle an Islamist insurgency, with violence spilling into the country from neighboring Mali, while jihadist groups exploit communal rivalries among ethnic Fulani, Tuareg, Daoussahak and other communities.
After seizing power in 2023, Mr. Tiani pushed out both French and American military contingents that had been deployed to Niger for counterterrorism missions. He has since turned to Russia as his security partner of choice.
“The Russian presence ensures that Western involvement is reduced or removed altogether,” Mat Whatley, managing director of the security-training company Okapi Train FZCO and a former British Army officer, told The Times.
“In time,” said Mr. Whatley, “Russia hopes to further benefit from its deployment to the Sahel countries through contracts for non-security matters including infrastructure construction.”
“In return for the deployment of a few thousand men with equipment,” he said, “Russia gains access to vital raw materials and minerals, including gold and uranium, a permanent presence, training areas, money and influence.”
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