Focus on Africa Russia's Wagner Group leaves Mali

Russia says the paramilitary group Wagner has accomplished its mission and has left Mali, although a Russian presence remains in the West African country, through the Africa Corps. So what did the Wagner Group achieve?
Why has a separatist movement on the tiny, remote island of Annobón that is part of Equatorial Guinea, appealed to Argentina for support with its independence claim?
And new research shows that Africa now has more Christians than any other continent, surpassing Europe for the first time. We discuss what is driving that growth.
Presenter: Audrey Brown
Producers: Tom Kavanagh, Alfonso Daniels, Nyasha Michelle, Victor Sylver and Joseph Keen
Technical Producer: Craig Kingham
Senior Producer: Patricia Whitehorne
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard

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BBC News

27 minutes ago

• BBC News

Russian government nervous as country faces economic challenges

At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a Russian MP came up to me."Are you going to bomb Iran?" he asked."I'm not planning to bomb anyone!" I replied."I mean you, the British…""Don't you mean Donald Trump?""He's told what to do by Britain," the man smiled. "And by the deep state."It was a brief, bizarre conversation. But it showed that in St Petersburg this week there was more on people's minds than just the economy. Take President Vladimir Friday, the Kremlin leader delivered the keynote speech at the forum's plenary session. It focused on the it's what the Kremlin leader said in the panel discussion afterwards that made headlines."We have an old rule," Putin declared. "Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that's ours."Imagine you're the leader of a country that's hosting an economic forum, seeking foreign investment and cooperation. Boasting about your army seizing foreign lands wouldn't appear to be the most effective way to achieve that's the point. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the state of the economy has been secondary to the goal of winning the war against Ukraine. That is the Kremlin's overarching priority. True, Russia's economy has been growing, but largely due to massive state spending on the defence sector and military-industrial complex. Russia fears another loss in Middle East from Iran's conflict with IsraelHow the West is helping Russia to fund its war on Ukraine And even this war-related growth is now petering didn't sound overly concerned."As far as the 'murder' of the Russian economy is concerned, as a famous writer once said - 'rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated,'" the Russian president declared. But the Russian government is clearly the forum, Russia's Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the country's economy was teetering "on the brink of recession". "We grew for two years at a fairly high pace because unused resources were activated," said Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. "We need to understand that many of those resources have truly been exhausted."The St Petersburg International Economic Forum was conceived as a shiny showcase for the Russian economy. A lot of that shine has faded due to the thousands of international sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Many Western companies pulled out of Russia. Might they return?After all, US President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants better relations with Moscow."Today we had breakfast with the American Chamber of Commerce and lots of investors came from the US. We get a sense that lots of American companies want to come back," Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin's envoy on foreign investment, told me. We spoke on the sidelines of the St Petersburg forum."I think the American administration understands that dialogue and joint cooperation is better than sanctions that do not work and hurt your businesses."Western businesses, though, are unlikely to return in large numbers while Russia is waging war on Ukraine."I think it's clear you have to have some sort of an end to the conflict before American companies are going to seriously consider going back," said Robert Agee, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia."Have you asked the Trump administration to remove some sanctions from Russia?" I asked him."We've been to Washington," he replied. "We have made an analysis of the impact of American sanctions on American businesses. We passed that on to the administration.""Do you accept that the idea of Western businesses returning is controversial in light of the war in Ukraine?" I asked. "Western businesses have made decisions based on what happened three or four years ago," replied Mr Agee. "And it's up to them to decide whether it's the right time to return."After more than three years of war and mass sanctions, Russia faces tough economic challenges: high inflation, high interest rates, reports of stagnation, recession. The problems in the economy are now openly discussed and unclear how soon they will be resolved.

Sky News

7 hours ago

• Sky News

Putin says 'all of Ukraine is ours' and threatens nuclear strike

Vladimir Putin has doubled down on his insistence that Russia will not give up any occupied territory as part of peace negotiations with Ukraine. In an exclusive interview with Sky News Arabia, the Russian president said negotiations need to recognise "the will of the people who live in certain territories". Mr Putin was referring to referendums held by Russian officials in 2022 in four annexed regions of Ukraine, and in Crimea. Those referendums, which were described as "shams" by the UK's foreign secretary at the time, saw all four regions vote to join Russia. "The will of the people is what [we] call democracy," said Mr Putin. He said that he hopes Ukraine's leadership will be "guided by national interests" in negotiations, rather than by the "interests of its sponsors". Those sponsors, he said, "are not interested in ending the conflict, but in using Ukraine for their own selfish political purposes". On Friday, the Russian president told business leaders in St Petersburg: "I have said many times that I consider the Russian and Ukrainian people to be one nation. 2:00 "In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours." He also threatened a nuclear strike on Ukraine for the first time in months, promising "catastrophic" consequences if Kyiv used a dirty bomb against Russian forces. "This would be a colossal mistake on the part of those whom we call neo-Nazis on the territory of today's Ukraine," he said. "It could be their last mistake. We always respond and respond in kind. Therefore, our response will be very tough. "Ukraine deserves a better fate than being an instrument in the geopolitical struggle of those who strive for confrontation with the Russian Federation." On Saturday morning, Russia claimed to have captured a small village named Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine's Donetsk region. Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, posted on Telegram saying that more than 200 Russian UAVs targeted the region on Friday. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was now in talks with Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada, the UK and Lithuania to start joint weapons production. He urged Kyiv's partners to provide 0.25% of their GDP to finance the production of Ukraine's weapons.

The Independent

7 hours ago

• The Independent

Ukraine says Russia handed over at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed that Russia has repatriated at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Ukraine, describing the unusual occurrence as a sign of Moscow's disorganisation in handling large swaps of wounded prisoners of war and military remains. Speaking to journalists on Friday Mr Zelenskyy disclosed that an Israeli citizen was among the deceased received by Ukraine. Officials have not yet disclosed the identities of the bodies. He condemned Russia's apparent disregard for its own troops, stating: "They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports." Mr Zelenskyy added that despite the clear evidence, the Russian side had insisted that all the dead were Ukrainians. Journalists were shown a Russian passport and ID belonging to one of the 20 dead Russians. According to the document, the man came from the Moscow region. The exchanges of the dead and wounded soldiers are the only tangible result of direct peace talks in Istanbul. In June, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange the bodies of fallen soldiers in a 6,000-for-6,000 format during the second round of negotiations. Ukraine was concerned that the number was too high and that the sides did not have enough time for forensic examinations and checking the identities of the dead. Zelenskyy said he suspected Russia's plan was to play along with peace talks to appease the U.S. and stave off more sanctions but without ending the war that Russian President Vladimir Putin believes he is winning. He said that because of this, Ukraine would be 'in a really difficult situation' of deciding whether to continue the talks in Istanbul. Impact of Iran -Israel war on Ukraine Zelenskyy said Ukraine was against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons, because of its military partnership with Russia, but stopped short of expressing explicit support for Israel's strikes. He repeated that the new war in the Middle East will affect Ukraine indirectly. 'Iran gave the Russians everything to kill us. They gave them martyrs, they gave them missiles, and they gave them licenses. The fact that their production capacities have now become weaker is (a) positive for us. But at certain points it may already be too late,' he said, also citing Russia's military cooperation with North Korea. Russia has modified Iran-made Shahed drones and has used them, often hundreds at a time, in barrages targeting Ukraine. Zelenskyy said 39 Russian companies were involved in the production of Oreshnik, an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. He said 21 of them are not under sanctions. 'And therefore it is absolutely incomprehensible why sanctions should not be imposed urgently,' he said. Russia attacked Ukraine with the missile in November, marking a serious escalation in the war and Russia's capabilities. Zelenskyy dispelled reports that Patriots air defense systems were destroyed in recent Russian drone and missile barrages. He also said Ukraine has started using domestically produced interceptors to shoot down Shahed drones and is seeking financing from Germany to ramp up the weapon's production. He added he sent signals to Western partners asking them to give up 0.25% of their GDP to support Ukraine's local defense industry. Zelenskyy said it's likely he would attend a NATO summit later this week, but that he would make a final decision on Monday. Though Zelenskyy did not meet Trump who had left early the Group of Seven summit in Canada last week, Ukraine's Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and the head of the president's office, Andriy Yermak, gave U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent a list of weapons Ukraine is hoping to purchase. 'We will wait feedback,' Zelenskyy said, adding the package of weapons included Patriot systems. The weapons package would be among the topics Zelenskyy plans to discuss with Trump in their next meeting, he added, as well as the issue of sanctions. 'Frankly, it seems to me that we need to talk about a new breath in the diplomatic track,' he said. 'We need greater certainty and greater pressure from the world on Putin.'