Including Ukraine and Russia, Wagner employs more than 30,000 fighters. Wagner’s mercenaries—backed by political strategists, financiers and geologists to prospect for mineral resources—have become entrenched in Mali, Syria and the Central African Republic. The Wagner Group had been operating the helicopters Mali’s soldiers used to wage war on jihadists across a country twice the size of France, its former colonial ruler. Since Putin launched his war on Ukraine, Wagner has taken aggressive steps to expand its footprint in Africa and beyond. If Wagner were to leave the Central African Republic, a civil war would break out, he said in an interview last month.

Source: Wall Street Journal July 01, 2023 13:07 UTC