Russians arrive in Niger as military agreement begins

Dozens of Russian military instructors have arrived in Niger as part of a new deal with the country’s military junta, which has severed ties with its Western allies.

State media reports that they arrived with state-of-the-art air defense systems.

They are expected to install the system and teach Niger’s military how to use it.

The West African country is battling an Islamist insurgency in the Sahel region and is one of three countries that have recently strengthened ties with Russia.

A spokesman for Niger’s military government said Friday that the Russians were in the country to train soldiers.

The Russian Ministry of Defense’s paramilitary Afrika Korps, also known as the Russian Expeditionary Corps (REK), wrote in a telegram that this was the first group of military personnel and volunteers to go to Niger.

In an attached video, military personnel from the corps said in French that they were coming to “develop military cooperation” between the two countries and brought “a variety of special military equipment” to support training. said.

Video footage of Russian instructors unloading a cargo plane full of equipment was broadcast on Niger’s state television.

Ulf Lessing, a Sahel expert at the pro-democracy Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told the BBC World Service’s Newsday program that the munitions appeared to be part of a “regime survival package”.

Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum was overthrown last year by a military junta that has since severed military and diplomatic ties with France, its former colonial power, and also scrapped an agreement with the United States.

Lessing said the junta remains concerned about any physical interference in Niger by the political and economic alliance of West African countries known as Ecowas.

He added that this was probably not to help crush Islamic militants, but to supply Russian air defense systems.

“The jihadists don’t have planes, so there’s no other explanation,” Lessing said.

Niger faces increasing violence from Islamic State, along with the continued threat from the Boko Haram militant group along its border with Nigeria.

At least six soldiers were killed in an explosion in the Tillabery region near the border with Mali earlier this week.

Confirming the attack, Niger’s Ministry of Defense said a military patrol vehicle hit a landmine near the southwestern village of Tingara earlier this week, killing some soldiers. Some people were injured and taken to the hospital.

The ministry said it had carried out airstrikes to neutralize those responsible for planting the homemade mines.

Although the junta cited deteriorating security in Niger as the reason for the coup, reports suggest rebels continue to carry out attacks on an almost monthly basis in parts of the country, particularly in the Tillabéry region.