The dogs of war are back, but is Ramaphosa finally coming around to Wagner?

The stability of the continent is also seriously threatened by the participation of foreign fighters, armed groups, and mercenaries in African conflicts, as well as by the emergence of terrorism and violent extremism in Somalia, the Sahel region, and northern Mozambique. Referring to "foreign fighters, armed groups, and mercenaries" while addressing the Sahel brings to mind the Wagner Group of Russia, which operates in this area and provides armed backing for governments that would not be in power if their citizens had the option to vote. Of course, the most egregious example is the Central African Republic, where Wagner imposes armed rule as the de facto government.

The Sahel area, a 1,000km-wide belt stretching 5,400km from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, cuts across parts of Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, the north of Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan and South Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

It is fraught with instability, violent extremism and poverty.

Since 2011, governments have been undone via the barrel of a gun in Mali, Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Guinea – in some instances, more than once.