Russia’s foreign minister again visits Africa, this time in Guinea, as some ties cool with the West

CONAKRY, Guinea — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Guinea on Monday on his latest visit to West Africa, where coups and growing discontent with traditional allies such as France and the United States have contributed to the turn of some countries toward Moscow.

Lavrov has visited the African continent several times in recent years as Russia seeks support – or at least neutrality – from many of its 54 countries amid Moscow’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Lavrov met with Guinean Foreign Minister Morissanda Kouyaté, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The Guinean government in a statement said the meeting was to discuss areas of mutual cooperation, without giving further details.

Lavrov was expected to arrive in the Republic of Congo late Monday afternoon, where he was due to meet with President Denis Sassou N’Guesso in the city of Oyo, according to an official statement from Brazzaville. It was unclear what other countries were on his itinerary later this week.

Guinea has been governed by a military junta since 2021. Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya took power saying he was preventing Guinea from falling into chaos and accusing the previous government of broken promises. In February, military leaders dissolved the government without explanation, saying that a new one will be appointed.

Doumbouya has rejected attempts by the West and other developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying Africans are “exhausted by the categorizations that everyone wants to box us into.”

Several West African nations, including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, have had coups that installed military junta. They have cut or reduced long-standing military ties with Western powers in favor of Russian security support.

Lavrov visited mali early last year and promised military support. Also last year, he visited South Africa – considered the most important of several African nations to take a neutral stance in the war in Ukraine – and returned there to go to a meeting of the BRICS bloc nations. He also visited Kenya on a mission to East Africa.

Lavrov at the end of last year toured North Africawhere Russia is also seeking to strengthen ties in the vacuum created by the waning popularity of Western powers.

In West Africa, the military junta that rules Burkina Faso It overthrew French forces last year and turned to Russia for security support. And in NigerThe Russian military trainers arrived weeks after the junta that took power last year tidy American troops will withdraw from the country.

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Associated Press writer Louis Patrick Okamba in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, contributed to this report.