Sahel Pact – Warsaw Pact African style
Restless Niger
In troubled Niger, after a change of power and after the threat of foreign invasion, local media are already calling for an example from Stalin and the Stalinist USSR. And they managed to launch the topic of the new Warsaw Pact into the information space.
Against such a generally favorable background for Russia, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, the hero of Pristina, Colonel General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov recently visited Niger. Today, only Niger and foreign sources report that he signed a protocol on military cooperation with Niger’s Defense Minister Salifu Modi in Niamey.
Although the contents of the generally routine document have not yet been officially disclosed, it is succinctly reported that the Russian Federation will provide assistance to the Republic of Niger in training military personnel. And also in the use of Russian military-technical products and military exercises.
Meanwhile, mass demonstrations against French neo-colonialism and in support of the alliance with Russia continue not only in Niger, but also in Mali and Burkina Faso. Moreover, demonstrators in Niger have recently called on the country’s leadership and all compatriots to emulate Stalin and the Stalinist USSR.
Western TV channels regularly broadcast footage of demonstrators chanting that the Soviet Union under Stalin defeated “all interventionists and agents of imperialism.” And later he helped Black Africa get rid of the colonialists.
Note also that, firstly, the withdrawal of French troops from this country is being completed at the same time, although Niger remains in the zone of the West African franc regulated by France, and these are nine countries in the region. Secondly, Mali and Burkina Faso also removed French troops from their territories.
In September 2023, these countries signed an open-ended agreement on “mutual military assistance” with Niger. Foreign experts not only call the agreement the “Sahel Defense Pact”, but also draw parallels with the Warsaw Pact.
Isn't it too intrusive a comparison, especially considering how Russia has already been squeezed out of Western Europe? And now they are making every effort to, shamelessly using the Kiev regime, squeeze them out of the East.
And restless Senegal
It is expected that another former (before 1958) colony of France, Guinea, which is also far from pro-French, will join this agreement. Thus, the Sahel Pact will have access to the Atlantic coast.
It’s not just that before his visit to Niger, Yu.-B. Evkurov visited Mali and Burkina Faso. Although official similar documents have not been signed with them at the moment, it is not difficult to assume that Bamako and Ouagadougou are also interested in an agreement on military cooperation with Russia.
It is also noteworthy that in November 2023, the government of the Russian Federation approved a draft agreement “On military cooperation” between Russia and Senegal, which borders Mali. The document was promptly prepared by the Russian Ministry of Defense during negotiations with the Senegalese side.
As indicated in this document, military cooperation with Senegal involves the exchange of military-political and military-technical information, stimulating the supply of defense products.
In addition, the calculation is made for cooperation in the implementation of national defense programs, in the training of military personnel and in countering terrorism.
According to available data, in accordance with the agreement, it is planned to establish joint training and retraining centers for the Senegalese military in handling military equipment in Senegal. There is no talk yet about a Russian military base in Senegal, which our opponents are always so afraid of.
Is Moscow “in the know”?
The agreement is planned to be signed no later than February 2024. Negotiations have been held since July of this year and have now reached the finish line. A draft of a similar agreement with Sao Tome and Principe (STP) was also approved by the Russian government in November. The signing of the document is planned no later than the first quarter of 2024.
Sao Tome and Principe is a miniature island state that gained independence from Portugal in 1975. And its strategic location - at the junction of Western and Equatorial Africa in the Gulf of Guinea - makes it possible to monitor both of these regions, especially the situation in their ten coastal countries.
In the 1960s - mid-80s. with the permission of West African Guinea and Benin, the Soviet Navy freely visited the ports of these countries. It was with his help that the landings of mercenaries hired by Western intelligence services who tried to overthrow non-Western regimes in Guinea in 1970 and Benin in 1977 were defeated.
Russia has repeatedly proposed that these countries enter into a military alliance, but their authorities linked this to the official participation of the USSR in such an alliance. This more than once involved the USSR in internal wars in the region, because serious interethnic and border contradictions persisted and still persist between almost all the countries of West Africa.
Therefore, in Moscow in the early 80s. stopped proposing a Guinea-Benin military alliance. Most likely, Russia will not directly participate in the mentioned “Sahel Pact” for the same reasons.
However, Moscow always has the right to recall that without Russian military-political support this pact would hardly have taken place...
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