It might interest our Anglo-Americanophobes and Russophiles that between 2015 and 2022 Russia has concluded military pacts with 73 states and one regional organization (ASEAN): 30 countries in Africa; 32 countries in Asia & Middle East; 5 countries in Latin America; 3 countries in Europe; and 3 countries in North America.

The African countries that have a military pact with Russia are: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroun, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Congo-Kinshasa, Egypt, Eswatini (aka Swaziland),  Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

We see here the typical Africa mimicry, herd or sheep mentality. We saw that same mentality on display when China purported to offer ‘free money’ to African countries. Rulers of most of these countries hurriedly trooped to Beijing and lined up in a hall like school children with the beggar’s bowl to collect the money. None of them bothered to read the fine prints. Shortly afterwards they started complaining about China demanding its ‘pound of flesh’ or sovereign property in lieu. It shall not be long before one hears similar distress calls regarding Russia.

These are the only African countries (24) that have so far escaped the Russian snare: Namibia, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mauritania, Seychelles, Comoros, Somalia, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Gabon, Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, Eritrea, Western Sahara, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Uganda, Tunisia, and Djibouti.

In recent days, Joseph Beti Assomo, Cameroon’s defense minister, made a discreet but remarkable visit to Moscow to sign a new military cooperation agreement between the two countries. This symbolic trip comes at a time when the Kremlin has relaunched its offensive in Ukraine.

On 12 April, Cameroon and Russia signed a new military cooperation agreement. Joseph Beti Assomo, the presidency’s minister delegate in charge of defense, had left Yaoundé the day before for Moscow, where he met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoogou. The latter, who is part of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, initialled the 13-page document on Russia’s behalf.

These frenetic Russian military pacts worldwide from 2015 to 2022 cannot be touted as a response to the claimed Western ‘imperialist’ conspiracy against Russia which uninformed minds advance as so-called ‘justification’ for Russian invasion (which Russia continues to deny), genocide, and the massive and wide destruction of Ukraine. Russia of course lost the UNGA vote formally designating it as aggressor, lost the UNGA vote suspending it from the Human Rights Council, and lost the ICJ case against it – all these diplomatic and legal defeats just within seven weeks.

By Prof Carlson Anyangwe, Cameroon Concord News and The Africa Report