Russia Reinforces Relationships with Sahel Countries
The Alliance of Sahel States (G5 Sahel) comprises of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. As Sahel countries are shunning the West, Russia sees an opportunity to fill in the void.
Over recent years, Russia has stepped up efforts to lure these countries away from the ‘sphere of influence of the West’ and to bring them inside the ‘gravitational orbit of Moscow’.
As part of efforts in that direction, Russian conglomerate Yadran Group has proposed to invest in the construction of a gold refinery and a factory for the Local Value Addition (#LVA) of cotton. In return, the Mali government will procure petroleum products from Yadran.
Access to electricity is a common pain point for the Sahel countries. Thus, Rosatom is planning to build a nuclear power plant in Burkina Faso to bolster #electrification following a request put forward during the Russia-Africa Summit (#RAS2023) in July 2023. Additionally, Rosastom Renewables — the renewable energy division of Rosatom — plans to build a 200 MW #PV plant just outside the Malian capital Bamako.
As Niger is one of the largest sources of uranium in the world accounting for 4% of global output, Rosatom has expressed interest in securing supply of nuclear material from Niger.
Space is emerging as a new area of cooperation between Russia and the Sahel States. On 23 September 2024, Roscosmos held a meeting with #ICT ministers of G5 Sahel to explore how space technologies can improve internet access, especially in remote desertic zones. As a bonus, communication satellites can also be used to extend TV coverage via satellite broadcasting.
Based on the latest figures, G5 Sahel countries count 67 million mobile subscribers out of a combined population of 81 million at the end of 2023. However, the number of high-speed internet users is still quite low at 17 million.
Seeing the business opportunity, Elon Musk’s Starlink is promoting its satellite broadband solution across Africa. In fact, Nigeria was its first market where Starlink launched its broadband via satellite in February 2023.
On the other hand, Roscosmos has partnered with Angola to place into orbit the AngoSat-2 communications satellite in January 2023. The broadband subscriber count jumped from 11.78 million to 14.63 million within a year.
Therefore, Roscosmos is proposing its satellite technology to the Sahel countries to provide broadband in a cost-effective manner. At the same time, Russia is pushing ahead with its ‘nuclear diplomacy’ across Africa.