Selling security to Africa: private military and security companies (PMSCs) and the fate of African intrastate security

The increasing demand for privatised security has rekindled significant attention to private military and security companies (PMSCs) in international relations and security discourse. Focusing on the Wagner Group, the overarching purpose of this work is to explore PMSCs in Africa to examine the consequences of their operations on the fate of the continent’s security. How may PMSCs such as Wagner’s operations and competitions with the traditional powers influence Africa’s security environment? We attempt to demonstrate how Wagner’s expanding footprint in Africa may create conditions for political violence and civil conflicts in Africa. Situating this analysis in the existing literature, we argue that the growing that the growing foothold of the Group and their readiness to compete with Western powers in Africa on behalf of Russia may reinforce states-citizens tensions, widen existing gaps between governments and citizens and radicalise and militarise citizens to drive political violence and civil conflicts. We base the methodological analysis on the qualitative technique and situate the theoretical argument in the contentious politics theoretical framework.