On 28 February, Atlantic Council published an article by Nonresident Senior Fellow Emadeddin Badi entitled ‘To counter the Wagner Group’s presence in Africa, the US will need to prioritize stabilizing Libya’. In the article, Badi explains how the Russian private military company (PMC), the Wagner Group, have been used to project Russian influence in Libya particularly since 2019. Badi argues that Wagner have undertaken military operations, military hardware maintenance, political advisory services, and social media disinformation campaigns in Libya. He argues that Wagner have entrenched themselves in the south and east of Libya since October 2020, obstructing and taking over military airbases, oil fields, and other infrastructures that align with Libyan National Army (LNA) Commander Khalifa Haftar’s aims. Badi said these actions serve Russia’s geopolitical goals while simultaneously harming US interests, largely by ‘stifling oil supplies to Europe and exacerbating global inflation’. Badi asserts that if the US is to challenge Russia’s influence in Libya, removing Wagner will be necessary but difficult. He rules out a military offensive is an unlikely prospect, but asserts that the US will need to address and confront the Libyan stakeholders who work with Wagner while simultaneously keeping their public personas distant from Russia. Badi also argues that the US should recognise its efforts to counter Wagner and connected with resolving Libya’s political impasse, and a dual approach to remove Wagner while moving Libya towards functioning governance will be important to focus in on.
Read the full article here.