Compounded by the tensions between Russia, Europe, and the United States as well as by France’s waning influence in the Sahel in West Africa, Wagner became an unexpected leverage asset for West African countries and another Russian sanctions’ target for the EU and the United States.
Burkina Faso is now the 3rd Sahel country since 08/20 to experience a putsch, while another possible attempt was thwarted in Niger in 03/21. It is also the 4th coup in northern Africa in less than a year after Chad, Guinea, and Sudan. This suggests that the deterrents the international community uses to stop this trend are failing and that military officials in the region see little impediment to seizing power.
In this article, Yan St-Pierre offers an overview how COVID-19 is perceived as both validation & opportunity for ideological & religious terrorist organisations & extremists, and how the current situation will likely nudge borderline terrorists to act.
The assassination of German politician Walter Lübcke, allegedly by a far right extremist, surprised many German politicians, who appear to have suddenly become aware of the threat far right terrorism represents. Yan St-Pierre discusses, why the climate of fear and extremism has been decades in the making. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Frank Vincentz, CC BY-SA 3.0)
