Wagner making Africa ‘more free’, says Prigozhin

Wagner is exploring for minerals as well as fighting Islamist militants and other criminals, said Yevgeny Prigozhin

Moscow: For the first time since the Wagner mercenaries’ failed rebellion against the Russian military in June, the group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared in a video address, suggesting that he was currently in Africa, the media reported on Tuesday. Although the video posted on Telegram channels linked to the mercenary group is yet to be officially verified, it shows Prigozhin in combat gear, saying the group is making Africa “more free”, reports the BBC.

In the video, he says Wagner is exploring for minerals as well as fighting Islamist militants and other criminals. “We are working. The temperature is 50, everything as we like. Wagner PMC conducts reconnaissance and search actions, makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free,” Prigozhin can be heard saying. “Justice and happiness — for the African people, we’re making life a nightmare for ISIS (Islamic State) and Al Qaeda and other bandits.”

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He further says that Wagner is recruiting and the group will “continue fulfilling the tasks that were set — we made promises we would succeed,” the BBC reported. In July, the Wagner chief was photographed in St. Petersburg, meeting an African dignitary on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit. The picture, according to Russian media, was taken at Trezzini Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg, where he has kept an office on the premises. The hotel was one of the locations searched by Russian authorities on July 6, after the June 24 rebellion.