200 Russian instructors in Equatorial Guinea, like déjà vu in Africa

Up to 200 of them are believed to have been sent to Equatorial Guinea. Russian soldiers set foot in this small West African country, officially to protect the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, indicates the BBC. The British public broadcaster takes up and develops information revealed by the Reuters press agency on Tuesday November 12. According to her, the said Russian “instructors” will have the mission of training elite guards in the country’s two main cities: the capital, Malabo, and Bata, a port city located near the Gulf of Guinea.

Still according to the press agency, as reported by BBC, these 100 to 200 Russians are believed to have arrived in the last two months. Some of them are likely to be part of the Africa Corps, a paramilitary force attached to the Kremlin and successor to the private paramilitary group Wagner.

During a visit to Moscow in September, Obiang had already thanked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for sending “instructors” to strengthen Equatorial Guinea’s defenses, the official Russian news agency reported at the time. Tass.

Opportunistic expansion

This presence adopts the classic pattern of Russian deployment in Africa. Indeed, Mosc