A Turkish private military company has recruited thousands of fighters to travel to West Africa as mercenaries to represent Turkey’s interests in Niger and other West African countries, a report by the AFP said on Thursday.
The fighters, according to Syrian media organisation Enab Baladi, are recruited from within the ranks of Turkey’s proxy in North and East Syria, the Syrian National Army (SNA). They then travel through Turkey’s borders, and onwards to West Africa.
The Sultan Murad division of the SNA, which is led by Fahim Issa, reportedly works as a recruiter for SADAT International Defense Consultancy. Sultan Murad is the largest division of the SNA, numbering up to 80,000. Recruits report being paid $1,000 or $1,500 a month. It is reported that the recruiting is not confined to the division’s ranks but is open to civilian recruits too.
According to the reports, mercenaries are simply asked for proof of ID before being sent off to West Africa. One recruit told media agency Enab Baladi that recruits are told to gather in the Aleppo countryside, or in Idlib near the Deir Ballut internal crossing, to be picked up by cars from the Sultan Murad division. The recruitment is said to be managed by the division commander Fahim Issa himself, and contracts to be signed by the fighters for a period of between six months and 1.5 years.
The SNA has previously been used as a channel for fighters in conflicts in Libya and Azerbaijan.
One recruit told the AFP news agency that contracts were signed in the SADAT offices and that the private military company handles all the costs and accommodation logistics for the fighters. The fighter, named Ömer, said that he was taken to Gaziantep and onward to Istanbul before boarding a jet to Burkina Faso and then finally to a camp in Niger. Ömer was told to ensure security for a mine; he said that others were sent to “fight Boko Haram.” However, Enab Baladi’s source said that the mission of the Syrian fighters was “unclear” but noted that some of the objectives are “to protect the Turkish bases in Africa, or to guard Turkish exploration teams that have signed contracts with those countries for gold mining there, and the second narrative is fighting”.
Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that an estimated 50 Syrian fighters had been killed in West Africa.
The Turkish Defence Ministry has flatly denied any knowledge of the fighters. But analysts have pointed out that the Turkish state is becoming increasingly close to the military junta that came to power in Niger in July 2023. Turkey and Niger have signed a military cooperation deal, and Niger has purchased Turkish armed drones.
