Rear Admiral Jamie Sands, the commander of the United States Special Operations Command Africa, says that the expansion of Russia’s paramilitary outfit, the Wagner Group, in recent months has made the Sahel region more vulnerable to violent extremism. Insisting that they were in it to loot and leave countries in a worse position. News24 quotes Sands as saying that he Wagner Group’s playbook is straightforward. The outfit thrives in unstable and ungovernable countries due to coups, poverty, and corruption. Violent extremists take advantage of this chaotic cocktail, which in turn forces governments in the region to look to the Wagner Group for protection.
