Wagner boss wants to focus on Africa again

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Too little ammunition, too untrained, too weak: Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozchin (61) denounces the Russian army. Now, as the Moscow Times writes, among others, he would have flooded the camel.

“He loses on both the real and the bureaucratic front,” it reads. According to the newspaper, Prigozhin now wants to stop his activities on the battlefield and focus on operations in Africa again. “When we are no longer needed, we will pack up and go back to Africa,” Prigozhin said in early February. That time seems to have arrived.

Wagner will not withdraw from Ukraine

But the Russian army needs the Wagner people. Marcel Plichta (28) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of War and Strategy Studies at the University of St. Andrews and a former U.S. Department of Defense analyst. In an interview with Blick he explains: “For the Russian army, a withdrawal of the Wagner mercenaries would mean that they would now have to do the dirty work themselves.” This means taking more risks and performing brutal maneuvers yourself.

However, according to Plichta, a complete withdrawal of Prigozhin’s men is unrealistic. The Wagner Group makes a lot of money with its involvement in the Ukraine and Prigozhin can further expand his power in Russia. But Wagner’s boss also has good cards in Africa – better cards than in the Ukraine.

Does Prigozhin want more power in Africa?

In Africa, Prigozhin has set up a syndicate: his fighters support the authorities of different countries and gain access to valuable resources from them. Prigozhin leads international operations, including gold, oil diamonds and timber mining in Syria, Sudan and the Central African Republic. Not surprisingly, Prigozhin wants to refocus on the African continent – it’s a lucrative business. And, you might think, a good way to extend his power beyond the borders of Russia.

It was recently reported that Wagner mercenaries invaded Burkina Faso after French soldiers were expelled from the country by authorities. The Wagner mercenaries have been stationed in Mali since 2021, hired by the military government there. The use of Russian mercenaries was also one of the reasons France and its Western allies decided to withdraw from Mali in February.

Wagner’s boss is more about money than power, explains expert Pichta. Nevertheless, Wagner’s danger in Africa must be taken seriously. While political instability in Mali and elsewhere causes a break with Europe, it also opens up new opportunities for Russia in Africa. There are fears in the West that there is a clear Kremlin strategy behind the expansion of mercenary operations in countries such as Libya and Mali.

In February, the US Treasury Department classified the Wagner Group as an international criminal organization. “And rightly so,” says Plichta. But that’s not all: “We need more resources to fight Wagner in Africa.”

Source: Blick