How Vladimir Putin is driving millions of migrants from Africa to Europe in revenge for our aid to Ukraine

THE eruption of the brutal civil war in Sudan took every one, including our Foreign Office, by surprise. But we were not alone in having to improvise a rescue operation for British passport holders. Our EU neighbours, too, had to rush in planes to evacuate their citizens. President Putin has been spreading his malign influence over Africa Many refugees will end up trying to cross the Channel to the UK in small boatsPA One country that doesn’t seem to have felt the need to evacuate its people in Sudan is Russia. While Western eyes have been fixed on the war in Ukraine, President Putin has been spreading his malign influence across Africa. Mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group, notorious for their brutal way of war in Ukraine, are actively meddling in countries such as Sudan. Officially, these Russian soldiers of fortune are helping to “stabilise” countries from Mali, in Africa’s west, to Sudan in the east. But their method of stabilisation — as we have seen in Syria for ten years now — is to drive millions of refugees towards Europe. Italy blames the Wagner Group for the fact that already this year 20,000 migrants have reached their shores, almost four times as many as in the same period of 2022. Many of these will end up trying to cross the Channel to the UK in small boats. Italy’s Defence Minister, Guido Crosetto, called it “part of a clear strategy of hybrid warfare’’ in retaliation for Western support of Ukraine. A cruel cynic like Putin is calculating that our humanity will lead us to ignore the potential problems of uncontrolled arrivals. Putin sees Africa as a second front against Nato Putin sees a re-run of these refugee crises as a way to undermine our support for Ukraine. What is happening in Sudan today is part of a bigger crisis across that vast belt of Africa’s Sahara Desert, from the Red Sea coast almost to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. It is a mistake to think of these places as just far-away countries whose problems won’t impact on life in Britain. Wagner mercenaries co-operate with the people-smugglers pushing people north. While Western eyes are fixed on Ukraine, Putin’s Russia is playing an active role in disrupting a swathe of Africa which was once divided between the British and French empires. The Russians never had an empire there and the Kremlin plays up local resentments against our colonial legacy. Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has been a frequent visitor to this crisis region, including to Sudan, building links with military regimes hostile to the West’s advocacy of democracy. But it is private mercenary company the Wagner Group, run by Putin’s close collaborator Yevgeny Prigozhin, which calls the shots — quite literally — for Russia in many of its overseas adventures. Prigozhin’s rise to political and military power in Russia, and as far away as Africa, is based on his strong personal links to Putin. He started out as a chef to Putin’s rising political star, then branched out into catering, before his appetite for power led Prigozhin to start a “private” military company called Wagner. Providing “protection” to dictators, while taking over gold mines and other mineral resources, provides Wagner with the money to fund its military operations. Putin has let Prigozhin access Russian military supplies and even aircraft, but also let him recruit his henchmen from convicts released from labour camps in return for doing whatever Putin or Prigozhin order them to do. Social mediaMercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group, notorious for their brutal way of war in Ukraine, are actively meddling in countries such as Sudan[/caption] WIKIPEDIAWagner mercenaries co-operate with the people-smugglers pushing people north[/caption] Even though his invasion of Ukraine went badly wrong, Putin sees meddling in Africa as a way to open a second front against Nato countries like Britain for backing Ukraine’s fight for independence. Refugees from civil war and coups in Africa, as well as droughts and famine caused by climate change, have been marching north to the Mediterranean coast. Chaotic Libya provides the launching pad for smuggling migrants into the EU via Italy. Many of the people trying to cross the Channel to this country from northern France started out in these unstable African countries. Now thousands of Sudanese are fleeing each day into neighbouring countries and northwards. Some 4,000 Sudanese have already crossed the Channel to get over here since 2020. That makes them the eighth biggest group of Channel-hoppers. Like the other illegal migrants, these Sudanese are overwhelmingly young men. ‘Human rights lobby has given ministers grief’ Most of the refugees staying inside war-torn countries in Africa are older people, women and children. That’s how it has been throughout history. Now the migrants moving around the EU and up to the English Channel are a new type of refugee — overwhelmingly, they are able-bodied males. Young men, whether born here or arriving from abroad, are much more likely to get into trouble with the police than any other group. It’s part of growing up, sadly, for too many. That is what has fuelled the statements about the criminal threat of uncontrolled migration made by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and immigration minister Robert Jenrick. APItaly blames the Wagner Group for the fact that already this year 20,000 migrants have reached their shores[/caption] APPutin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has been a frequent visitor to this crisis region, including to Sudan[/caption] The human-rights lobby has given these Tory ministers grief for their comments. But we should remember how few people are needed to form a terrorist group or a drugs gang, yet what harm they can do. The sinister figures making a fortune out of smuggling people across the Channel are linked to a criminal underworld. Putin’s criminal Wagner Group has its tentacles inside these international crime syndicates, as do Islamist terrorist cells. To these diabolic mafias, the more “honest” migrants from chaotic conditions, the better, since they provide perfect cover for inserting hostile agents. Russian intelligence has seen how Islamist terrorists have used the asylum system to infiltrate suicide bombers here in recent years. Think back to the terrible Manchester Arena atrocity in 2017. The suicide bomber and his accomplices were Libyans. Sympathy for people whose families had escaped Colonel Gaddafi’s murderous regime there meant Libyans who reached this country got a free pass to stay. Most Libyans here were as horrified as the rest of us by these cruel killings, but we shouldn’t look away from the inter-community tensions that such murders cause. If, God forbid, there is a mass-casualty terrorist attack by a cross-Channel asylum seeker, mightn’t people ask: What are we doing spending all this defence money in Ukraine when the streets of London are under attack? The Kremlin calculates that while its Wagner Group makes money in Africa, its mercenaries are profitable for Russia’s grand strategy against us in the West, too. Pushing waves of refugees northward into Europe destabilises social harmony here. Anything that is divisive in countries such as Britain is good news for Putin. Mark Almond is the director of the Crisis Research Institute, Oxford. Russian arms to Africa % of countries total supply of arms Algeria 74.9% Sudan* 32.6% South Sudan 58.9% Egypt 31.8% Libya* 19.5% Uganda 77.3% Mali* 22.5% Ethiopia 8.5% *Russian mercenaries active