‘New Cold War’ looms in Africa for U.S., Russia

NAIROBI, KENYA >> Fueled by guns, gold and social media, the rivalry between Russia and the West in Africa is rapidly escalating. The latest flashpoint is Chad, a sprawling desert nation at the crossroads of the continent, now a plum target for Russia’s expanding effort.

The United States recently warned Chad’s president that Russian mercenaries were plotting to kill him and three senior aides and that Moscow was backing Chadian rebels massing in the neighboring Central African Republic. At the same time, Moscow is courting sympathizers inside Chad’s ruling elite, including Cabinet ministers and a half brother of the president.

The decision by the U.S. government to share sensitive intelligence with the head of an African state — a disclosure it then leaked — reveals one way in which the Biden administration is moving more assertively in Africa and using new tactics to stymie Russian gains on the continent.

The United States is taking a page from its playbook in Ukraine, where it has used classified information to expose Russian military plans and preempt what it says are Chinese plans to supply Russia with new weapons.

In Africa, the more forceful American approach aims partly to shore up the crumbling position of France, which in recent years has ceded ground to Russia in former colonies such as Mali and the Central African Republic. Now, the Russians are looking to topple more French dominoes in central and western Africa, and the United States is responding.

A U.S. official, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters of national security, said the assassination plot in Chad represented “a new chapter” in efforts by Wagner, a Kremlin-backed private military force, to advance Russian interests in Africa.

Until now, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who leads Wagner, has established footholds in vulnerable African countries by sending his fighters to prop up tottering authoritarian rulers, usually in exchange for payment, or licenses to mine diamonds or gold.

The plot in Chad suggests that he is ready to topple leaders who stand in his way. That change has prompted the United States to adopt more forwardleaning measures, such as those used in Ukraine, that are intended “to slow, to curb, constrain and reverse” Prigozhin’s expansion in Africa, the official said.

“Where Wagner has been present, bad things have inevitably followed,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on a visit to Niger on Thursday.

The visit, during which Blinken pledged $150 million in aid to the Sahel region, was the fourth to Africa by a senior U.S. figure this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Linda Thomas-greenfield, ambassador to the United Nations, and first lady Jill Biden preceded him. Vice President Kamala Harris will begin a trip to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia this month, and President Joe Biden has promised to visit Africa later this year.