VIDEO: Putin is replacing Wagner group in Africa with his own corps

NORMAN HERMANT, REPORTER:  Across Africa, with the world’s eyes on the Middle East and Ukraine, governments have been falling one by one.

And as the political order shifts, Russia is taking advantage. Vladimir Putin has already forged strong ties with a new generation of coup leaders. 

ISABELLA CURRIE, LA TROBE UNIVERSITY:  I think this is an important time to be focusing on what's happening in these countries. We're looking at geopolitical shifts and power shifts that could have quite significant long-term impacts.

NORMAN HERMANT:  Two and a half years, seven military coups – it’s the most instability Africa has seen since the wave of independence that swept the continent in the 1960s.   

YINKA ADEGOKE, SEMAFOR AFRICA:  It does feel like something has changed. It's not going to return to the way it was.

NORMAN HERMANT:  And groups such Wagner private military company were quick to move in. 

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE, CENTRE FOR STRATEGIC AND INT’L STUDIES:  When France and other Western countries get in conflict with these African countries, it ends up often creating a void and that is the opportunity that the Russians then come and exploit.

NORMAN HERMANT:  Academic Isabella Currie has spent years researching Wagner’s activities in Africa.

Last year there were questions about the groups’ future after its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed just months after leading a failed mutiny in Russia. 

But Wagner, Currie says, didn’t go away.  

ISABELLA CURRIE:  They were still very active in Africa. I think, the process that we have seen across African states really continued as business as usual.

NORMAN HERMANT:  These pictures from a Russian social media site show the first troops dispatched last month as part of the Kremlin’s newly formed Africa Korps, part of Russia’s Ministry of Defence 

ISABELLA CURRIE:  What we're looking at at this point is just a continuation of Wagner’s presence in the form of the Africa Korps

It will obviously be more publicly recognised by the Putin regime, whereas Wagner was not previously.

NORMAN HERMANT:  All but one of the countries where civilian governments were toppled are former French colonies.  

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE:  France, unlike the UK and Portugal and Belgium, has not gotten the memo to change and adjust its policies towards African countries, its former colonies. And I think the frustration has built over years and decades and is just coming home to roost.  

NORMAN HERMANT:  The falling dominoes have earned the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert the nickname the coup belt. 

With leaders overthrown in countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Those countries have announced they’re leaving the ECOWAS economic and political bloc in West Africa.   

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE:  These are countries that have been facing insurgencies and on top of these insurgencies, they have the challenges of governance.

Then you really have a violent cocktail ready to explode.

NORMAN HERMANT:  And when that explosion comes, anger is often directed at the former colonial power.  

YINKA ADEGOKE:  There's a lot of built-up resentment towards the French. In many ways, it's very easy for any sort of person who is trying to control to point a finger at the French say, why are they still here?

(Social media video)

NORMAN HERMANT:  Much of that anti-French sentiment has been fuelled on social media by videos like this. 

Zombie French soldiers mowed down by Mali’s military junta with help from mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group.   

Another video first shared on Russian social media depicts France as a giant rat. What better way to exterminate it than a call to Wagner?   

Isabella Currie says behind the recent instability in Africa’s coup belt, it’s not hard to see Moscow at work. 

ISABELLA CURRIE:  There are fingerprints and footprints right across that region, and they have been there for a really long time. We first saw the Wagner group pop up in in 2017, and they've had a very active presence since then.  

NORMAN HERMANT:  It’s also not hard to see, she says, what’s in it for Russia.

ISABELLA CURRIE:  The areas that these groups are operating in are very resource rich. There's a lot of mining, natural resources and gas deposits, oil deposits, diamonds, gold, you name it, that there's access to in those countries

NORMAN HERMANT:  The Kremlin is moving into the void left behind as France’s influence recedes and Mvemba Phezo Dizolele says that’s no surprise after Western countries backed corrupt regimes for decades.   

MVEMBA PHEZO DIZOLELE:  It's a wakeup call for Western countries to look also in the mirror, to sit at a drawing table and say, “What are we doing? Why are we here? Why are we failing?” Because there is fear. There is shared responsibility here.

NORMAN HERMANT:  And more dominoes may fall.

Yinka Adegoke believes countries in the Congo Basin are most at risk.   

Equatorial Guinea’s president has ruled for 44 years.

Congo Brazzaville’s leader has been in power for 41 years. 

And Cameroon’s Paul Biya has been president for 42 years and at age 90, is the world’s oldest head of state.  

YINKA ADEGOKE:  People look at the situation and go, I think we can, this is a good time for us to make a move because we'll get support if we do this.

NORMAN HERMANT:  Ageing leaders and corrupt, unpopular regimes - the ingredients are there for more young military leaders to take their shot at power.