- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
A navigation grouping, not a command: the Russian deployments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger differ in scale, posture and evidence, and are recorded separately for that reason. What they share since 2025 is an institution — the Ministry of Defence's Africa Corps, successor to the Wagner deployment — and a sustainment chain that runs through the Russian state.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. 4 subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 3 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — each contingent recorded on its own terms; nothing here describes positions or strength.
- Notable history
- The presence began as a private one. Wagner deployed to Mali from December 2021 as France withdrew, fought the 2023 northern campaign, suffered its worst African defeat at Tinzaouatène in July 2024, and was repeatedly implicated in mass civilian killings documented by UN reporting. After the 2023 mutiny the Russian state folded the group under Ministry of Defence control and in June 2025 rebranded its Mali deployment as Africa Corps, with most personnel carried over. Burkina Faso and Niger never had Wagner: the corps arrived in Ouagadougou in January 2024 as an instructor contingent whose announced expansion collapsed, and relocated to Niamey's Air Base 101 in May 2024 while American personnel were still leaving. Moscow has officially credited its Niger contingent with two engagements — repelling the January 2026 airport attack and intervening against the August 2026 mutiny — the only such acknowledgements in the region. In Mali the corps withdrew from the far north under negotiated terms in April 2026 and has been described since as shifting effort from ground commitments to air support, intelligence and convoy escort.
- Strengths
- A single institutional owner since 2025 and a state sustainment chain, which make the deployments legible in a way the contractor phase was not; and, for the host governments, a partner without governance conditions.
- Limitations
- Three contingents of different scale, record and evidence, which is why this record refuses to sum them. Command above the corps is reported rather than published, personnel figures are unofficial, and the Mali contingent's civilian-harm record and its 2024–2026 battlefield losses are part of what any reading of the presence must carry.
Subordinate formations
Rows are layout only — position and order carry no hierarchy, importance, sequence or strength. Every record shown is an immediate subordinate of the selected organisation.
Assessed as of — 2026-08 Last reviewed — 2026-09-28
See this force in the structure Interactive: select this record and follow what connects to it.