Over the past few years, Russia has dominated the most important Western migration route on the African continent. The threat of the free passage of hundreds of thousands of Africans as an instrument of Russia's hybrid war against Europe has thus become very real. How could this have happened when the West had controlled the whole of West Africa for over a century?
Two certainties: the army and corruption
Sixty years of political independence have, however, failed to create a middle class, sufficient education or a stable political system in post-colonial societies. Thus, in virtually all West African countries, only two stabilizing factors have established themselves: the military and corruption. In all cases, Western attempts to democratise the communities there through the modernisation and training of armies have gradually failed.
'The road to Europe is now wide open for refugees and migrants from virtually all of Africa. Russia, which also has mercenary troops in Libya, now controls the whole of it."
"The Russian Ministry of Defense has recently established its own interventionist "volunteer" force under the name "Afrikaner Corps" - the similarity to the name of the Nazi Afrikakorps of World War II is more than interesting."
So far, the latest defeat for the European Union was inflicted by the military regime in Niger when, a few weeks ago, it repealed an eight-year-old law making it virtually impossible for refugees from African countries to cross into Libya and on to Europe via the northern territory of Niger.
This cost European diplomacy EUR 5 billion eight years ago. One billion in aid was then given to Niger itself. The military government, now working closely with Russia, last month declared the law to be 'colonial coercion' and a restriction on the 'travellers' on whom the economy of the north is said to depend.
The road to Europe is now wide open for refugees and migrants from virtually all of Africa. Russia, which also has mercenary troops in Libya, now controls the whole of it. This is certainly not good news for the countries of southern and western Europe and for the European Union as a whole.
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