Russia's "Dark Fleet": How Moscow Is Using African Waters to Circumvent Sanctions

Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russian energy exports, Moscow has gradually built a parallel maritime system known as the Dark Fleet, or ghost fleet. Estimated at between 600 and 1,400 vessels, this fleet allows Russia to continue exporting oil despite the price cap imposed by the G7 and other Western restrictions. Composed mainly of oil tankers over fifteen years old, often acquired secondhand through shell companies, the fleet is defined by a consistent set of features: actual ownership concealed behind offshore structures, frequent changes of name, registration and flag, deliberate deactivation of AIS geolocation systems, widespread ship-to-ship transshipment, and insufficient or non-existent insurance.

The insurance gap is particularly stark. More than 90 percent of the world's tonnage is covered by the International Group of P&I Clubs, which guarantees compensation in the event of pollution or an oil spill. Dark Fleet vessels generally operate outside this system. Before sanctions, nearly 70 percent of Russian oil moved on properly insured ships; that proportion is now believed to be below 10 percent, shifting the financial risk of any major accident onto coastal states themselves.

Africa: A New Area of Expansion
Originally concentrated around the Baltic and Black Seas and shipping routes to Asia, the Dark Fleet is increasingly turning to Africa, where several shipping registries have become prime targets due to weak oversight or registration procedures delegated to private operators. In 2024, 36 percent of ships registered in Gabon had direct links to Russia. Benin, The Gambia, Cameroon and Senegal now regularly appear in investigations into illicit transshipment in the Gulf of Guinea. Between October and November 2025, nearly 40 percent of oil tankers calling at Russian Baltic ports were sailing under African or similar flags.

Fraud cases are rising in step. The Gambia deregistered 72 vessels in 2024, while the Comoros and Sierra Leone have launched similar proceedings. Several investigations have implicated private intermediaries issuing fraudulent certificates to register ships tied to Russian exports. This is fundamentally a sovereignty issue: a flag is the legal extension of a state at sea, and when it becomes associated with sanctions evasion, the credibility of the entire registry is compromised.

MY ROSE: A Telling Example of Russian Methods

While oil tankers are the most visible part of the Dark Fleet, other vessels run far more discreet supply chains. The Cameroonian-flagged roll-on/roll-off cargo ship MY ROSE (IMO 8207381) illustrates the pattern: ownership registered in the Marshall Islands, management based in Turkey, an African flag with minimal oversight, and classification by a body outside the International Association of Classification Societies. The vessel regularly sails between the Russian port of Novorossiysk and Turkey before continuing to North Africa.

On April 26, 2026, MY ROSE was spotted in the Bosphorus carrying roughly forty KamAZ trucks, a manufacturer under US, British and European sanctions for its role in the Russian war effort. The vehicles were painted white and presented as civilian equipment, despite KamAZ trucks being widely used dual-use equipment for Russian forces. The case demonstrates Russia's broader method: a discrepancy between official and actual ownership, flags with minimal oversight, dual-use cargo, avoidance of European ports with enhanced inspections, and layered legal intermediaries to dilute liability.

Latest Developments: VIREL, TAGOR and SMYRTOS

The oil tanker VIREL (IMO 9299874), subject to sanctions across six regimes including the EU, UK, Switzerland, Canada, Australia and Ukraine, was recently identified sailing under the Cameroonian flag toward Conakry, officially listed as part of the Russian Dark Fleet and allegedly involved in transporting oil sold above the G7 price cap. The case underscores Cameroon's growing exposure: 127 Dark Fleet-linked vessels were registered under its flag as of April 2026, 37 oil tankers were registered between December 2025 and February 2026, and roughly 13 percent of sanctioned oil tankers worldwide are believed to sail under the Cameroonian flag. In response, Yaoundé has suspended new international registrations, launched a comprehensive audit of its maritime registry, and announced the deregistration or suspension of around 40 vessels.

On May 31, 2026, the oil tanker TAGOR was boarded in the Atlantic on suspicion of belonging to the Dark Fleet while fraudulently flying the Cameroonian flag, displaying the familiar profile of repeated name changes, successive flags, involvement in Russian oil exports to Asia, and AIS disabled at sea. On June 8, 2026, Cameroon's Ministry of Transportation officially stated the vessel was not listed in any authorized national registry, marking the first time Yaoundé has publicly distanced itself from a vessel tied to the Russian ghost fleet.

The most significant episode to date is the boarding of the oil tanker SMYRTOS in the English Channel, a joint UK-France operation and the first coordinated interception of its kind against a Dark Fleet vessel. The ship was sailing under a false Cameroonian flag; British units inspected it for six hours before diverting it into UK territorial waters. Within hours, four other ghost fleet vessels flying Cameroonian or Sierra Leonean flags abruptly changed course westward to avoid the Channel, suggesting Russian ship-owners now treat the corridor as high-risk.

Wagner, Africa Corps and Military Networks Aboard Ships

An investigation by Danish outlet Danwatch identified 83 Russian nationals linked to military or paramilitary organizations aboard 65 Dark Fleet ships, including reported former Wagner Group members, Africa Corps personnel, individuals connected to Russian intelligence, and GRU veterans. Officially listed as security guards, radio engineers or additional crew, these individuals are reported to have actually exercised control functions, monitoring crews, directing navigational decisions, and communicating directly with management companies.

The presence of personnel linked to GRU Unit 29155, known for involvement in covert operations, adds to concerns that the Dark Fleet functions not only as an economic workaround but as a vehicle for hybrid operations blending intelligence, influence and military logistics.

MERSIN: When the War in Ukraine Threatens the African Coast

The most immediate danger remains environmental. In November 2025, the tanker MERSIN, carrying roughly 30,000 metric tons of diesels, suffered major damage after a leak developed, in the aftermath of a Ukrainian-claimed operation against infrastructure linked to Russian exports. Swift action by Senegalese authorities helped avert an ecological disaster that could have destroyed small-scale fishing areas, caused long-term contamination of coastal ecosystems, inflicted major losses on tourism, and directly threatened food security. In the Gulf of Guinea, fish accounts for between 20 and 55 percent of animal protein intake depending on the country, meaning a major spill would become an economic and social crisis as much as an environmental one.

A Growing Threat to African Maritime Security

Since 2021, 118 accidents involving Dark Fleet-linked ships has been recorded. Recent incidents include the tanker Bella 1, seized by the United States in the North Atlantic in January 2026; the Kairos, struck by Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea in December 2025; the Zimrida, detained in Abidjan in November 2025 while carrying 20,000 metric tons of ammonium nitrate; and the Boracay, caught in an illegal transshipment with AIS disabled in the Gulf of Guinea in October 2025. Each incident raises the same unresolved question: who pays in the event of a disaster? Absent solid financial guarantees, the costs of cleanup, infrastructure repair and economic compensation are likely to fall on coastal states themselves.

Africa Faces a Challenge to Maritime Sovereignty

The Dark Fleet has evolved beyond a mechanism for evading Western sanctions into a destabilizing force directly affecting African interests, exploiting the continent's shipping registries, using its waters as transit zones, and exposing its coasts to accident risk. Several states have begun responding: mass deregistration in The Gambia, strengthened controls in Senegal, an audit of the Cameroonian registry, and new International Maritime Organization guidelines issued in April 2026 targeting fraudulent registrations.

For many observers, the issue now extends well beyond sanctions compliance against Moscow. It is a question of protecting African maritime sovereignty, the credibility of African flags, and the safety of coastal populations against a fleet whose opacity, poor condition and absence of safeguards pose a growing risk to the continent's seas.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator, Member GAMPA
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.

International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP

[email protected]
+233-555-275-880
References
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Business in Cameroon as above, ref. 22
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Danwatch Ibid.
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