Reclaiming States and Value: Recapture of Kidal and Creation of Gold Refineries Across Sahel

Instability in countries that later formed the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES) in security political and economic affairs resulted from perennial interference by the US and France. Military assistance from Russia is helping these countries to regain sovereignty and capture more value from their resources.

Mali and Africa Corps reenter Kidal

The link between a stronger state and greater control over mineral resources is evident in how post-coup states in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, with Russia’s security assistance are strengthening control over mining, export, and value addition of gold mined in their territories. Notably, Niger faced an attempted coup through Mutiny in late August 2026, in which mutineers attacked the presidential palace, national broadcaster, and a strategic airbase before being repulsed by royalist forces assisted by Russia’s Africa Corps. France 24, covering the mutiny, claimed that Russia’s involvement indicated that Niger or the Sahel needed external help to maintain stability, in its attempt to justify French military presence in the Sahel, which was ended by post-coup governments of AES. However, the claim from this media ignored how French and US military presence weakened these states for decades, while Russian presence is creating stability that is enabling them to regain control, and engage in value addition for the first time in history.

For many decades, the US actions in the Sahel destabilized states, preventing resource sovereignty. For instance, US State Department reports from as early as 2012 points to Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu as being controlled by Al-Qaeda* in the Islamic Maghreb* (AQIM) and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa* (MUJAO), even while The US military had operated in northern Mali from 2005, through the so-called Trans-Sahara........

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