The Russian Wagner paramilitary group will continue its operations in Mali and the Central African Republic despite the abortive rebellion of its leader in Russia last weekend, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday. The mercenaries led by Yevgeny Prigozhin offer military aid to these regimes in exchange for raw materials and precious stones.
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With the report of Gemma Parellada, RFI correspondent in Cape Town
Wagner’s staff from those countries are “working as instructors. That work, of course, will continue,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with RT on Monday, adding that the revolt will not affect Russia’s relations with Russia. “partners and friends”.
Meanwhile, nerves are on edge in Africa, especially in Mali and the Central African Republic, where Wagner’s men are on the front lines, leading the fight against rebel and terrorist groups.
And it is that although Western attention to Wagner arose with the war in Ukraine, this private militia has been forged, trained and financed in Africa since its origins almost ten years ago. They have been in Libya, Sudan or Mozambique, but it is the case of the Central African Republic, Wagner’s great laboratory, the one that has consolidated its operation, which is now being reproduced in Mali: the current great focus of its expansion. Both countries with large gold reserves.
The group offers defense, that is, military support to the authorities in exchange for mining contracts. And so it is financed with gold, but also diamonds, wood or coffee, obtaining in addition to money, training camps and influence. For now, Bangui and Bamako maintain official silence, but questions and uncertainty circulate in the streets and in the offices. What changes will there be now after the Putin-Prigozhin alliance blows up?
Russia’s interests on the continent are enormous and Wagner had until now been its tool to operate in Africa.
Meanwhile, it is unknown where Prigozhin is. In Saint Petersburg, the main headquarters of the mercenary group assured that it was operating “normally” after the failed rebellion led by its leader.
“Despite the events that took place, the center continues to function normally in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation,” the group’s main office said in a statement, at a time of uncertainty about the future of the company.
Hours earlier, sources inside Wagner had assured that the group continued to recruit in various regions.
“Recruitment continues,” an employee of the Siberian city of Novosibirsk told the official TASS news agency.
In front of the group’s building in this city, the banners with Wagner’s image were put up again on Monday, according to TASS, after being removed on Saturday.
