Do not allow Russia-Ukraine war to spread to Africa

An African mother waits for news of her son. A family fears the worst. A community already battered by conflict braces for another foreign intervention. Thousands of kilometres from the Russia-Ukraine war’s origins, Africa is confronting a chilling possibility: That a European conflict could become another source of bloodshed on African soil.

Must Africa once again pay in African lives for a war it did not start?

A CNN report published on September 12, 2026, titled "Ukraine is fighting Russia anywhere it can—even in the deserts of Africa," describes Ukrainian military specialists supporting local rebel forces fighting Russian troops in Mali. It also reports Ukrainian operations in Libya and Sudan, alongside military training activities elsewhere in the Middle East.

These developments should alarm African governments. The Russia-Ukraine war began in Europe, but its widening geopolitical reach risks drawing African countries and their fragile conflicts into a contest that is not theirs to fight. Africa must reject any attempt to turn its territory into an extension of that war.

This is not about giving Russia a free pass or denying Ukraine the right to defend itself. It is about refusing to let Africa become another theatre for competing foreign powers. African countries must not accept military involvement simply because it is presented as a strategic partnership.

Mali and other conflict-affected countries have their own political and security challenges. When external powers support opposing sides, they risk intensifying local conflicts and making peace harder to achieve. The contest becomes about more than combatants; it is also about influence, resources and strategic advantage.

Africa has seen this pattern before. External powers have exploited local divisions, armed competing interests and presented their involvement as indispensable. Ordinary people bear the consequences: Mothers mourn their children, communities are uprooted and economies weakened by prolonged insecurity.

Veteran journalist and editor Chris Odwesso warns that such manoeuvring exposes the duplicity and double standards underpinning diplomacy and global power games. He is concerned that African conflicts, often catalysed by external forces, provide opportunities for powerful countries to pursue their interests while exploiting the continent’s human and natural resources.

The African Union cannot afford to remain mute or ambivalent. It must oppose the spread of foreign wars onto African soil, demand transparency about external military operations and ensure African security decisions serve African people.

Yet the challenge is also diplomatic and economic. Africa’s dependence on external powers and limited influence in global decision-making leave it vulnerable to decisions made elsewhere.

University lecturer Dr Stephen Ndegwa argues that Africa has little bargaining power and will remain a victim of circumstances unless it changes course. Given the freedom to choose its economic relationships, he says, African countries would continue doing business with Russia rather than being pressured to follow the preferences of powerful Western states.

His argument is not that Africa should replace one dependency with another. Rather, African countries must be free to pursue foreign policies and trade relationships that serve their interests. A multipolar world should offer Africa more choices, not force it to exchange one external patron for another.