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Russia’s disbanded Wagner Group recruits fighters to aid African regimes
Insights from Verstka Media, Foreign Policy, and Mandiant
The News
Russian paramilitary group Wagner is offering mercenaries lucrative salaries to work aiding military regimes in Africa instead of joining Moscow’s armed forces in Ukraine, an investigation found, despite the group being officially disbanded last year.
Eight months after the death of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a suspicious plane crash, the group is still active, offering recruits four times the average Russian salary to work in several African countries, the joint investigation by Verstka Media and Nordsint found.
The outlets reported at least 18 Wagner adverts on Telegram seeking forces for operations in Africa. The ads were mostly focused on hiring Russian and Belarusian mercenaries for roles in Mali, where Wagner has worked with the ruling military junta since 2021.
Following a failed mutiny in June last year and Prigozhin’s subsequent death, Russian officials declared the private military group “definitively disbanded” in November, with its battle-tested fighters transferred to official Russian army units.
Wagner is now believed to have been subsumed by the Russian security state and partially rebranded as Africa Corps, deploying to Burkina Faso and elsewhere. However, the Telegram ads appeared under the Wagner name.
One Wagner recruiter told Verstka that “they don’t want to go to Ukraine” to end up in a coffin. “In Africa, there are no such risks. Plus, the weather is nicer.”
SIGNALS
Group provides ‘regime survival package’ to autocrats in Africa
Now operating largely under the auspices of Russia’s army and security forces, Wagner provides a “regime survival package” to governments in Africa that helps to advance Russian state interests on the continent, a February report by the Royal United Services Institute found. It provides military assistance, political technologists to help autocrats boost their domestic popularity, and economic and political protection via the Kremlin. This wide range of activities has included launching one of the most popular radio stations in the Central African Republic which quickly became a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda, as well as establishing training camps in Syria and Libya, and providing security for military juntas in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. In exchange, Russia has secured control of natural resources such as gold, uranium, and lithium.
Wagner’s information warfare has continued after Prigozhin’s death
Disinformation companies once backed by Wagner founder Prigozhin have also persisted, despite their founder’s death in a plane crash widely believed to be the work of the Kremlin. One such operation formerly linked to Prigozhin takes aim at right-wing U.S. audiences and continues to spread divisive narratives such as questioning the 2020 U.S. presidential election results, criticizing NATO, and promoting unproven allegations about U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, according to a study released last week by the cybersecurity firm Mandiant. The report said it was unclear who had taken control of these influence operations, but there were several indications that the new leaders of these campaigns were seeking to ramp up their activities.
