Russian mercenaries may be poised for further expansion in Africa’s strategically important Sahel region after a coup d’etat in the region last week, western officials and analysts fear.
Ibrahim Traoré, a 34-year-old army captain, took power in Burkina Faso last Friday, overthrowing another military officer, Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who he said had failed to counter rising violence by Islamic extremists in the unstable and poverty-stricken country.
The international community widely condemned the ousting of