Wagner mercenaries don’t only fight in Ukraine. The Kremlin’s henchmen are also active in Africa. They also fund their army through systematic land grabbing.
In the middle of Bangui, between the university and the football stadium, there is an unusual monument. It shows four soldiers in combat formation. One of them sights the target through binoculars, the other three have their machine guns at the ready. It is not clear which enemy the group has in mind. The only thing that is clear is that the monument is dedicated to the Wagner group. It stylizes Russian mercenaries traveling in Africa on behalf of the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Bangui is the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), one of the poorest countries in the world. The average life expectancy of men in the CAR is 52 years. On average, one teacher has to look after 83 primary school children. The country is ranked 188th in the United Nations Human Development Report (UNDP 2021). And thus in last place.
The frightening thing is that the republic is actually very rich. Above all in mineral resources such as gold, diamonds and the heavy metal uranium required for the production of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. But the exploitation of these treasures does not benefit the population. Instead, the income from the gold and uranium mines goes primarily into the pockets of a wealthy upper class, the autocratic government – and for some time now also into the pockets of the Wagner group.
Witness: Attacked and murdered by Wagner mercenaries
The mercenary army has been active in the Central African Republic since 2017 at the latest. A year earlier, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, a former mathematics professor who was preparing to secure his power with the help of the Wagner mercenaries, had been elected President of ZAR. As the US television broadcaster CBS reports, Wagner mercenaries sponsored Touadéra’s campaign events in the run-up to the 2021 elections, in which the incumbent president was able to secure a second term in office.
In return, according to media reports, Touadéra ceded a significant number of mining rights to the Prigozhin company. In order to exploit these mineral rights, the Russian paramilitaries use particularly brutal methods. According to eyewitnesses, they used brute force to drive out local miners in many places. The family of a prospector, who was prospecting for the precious metal in a small village, is said to have been attacked by Wagner soldiers and their business taken over.
“They stole everything. Then they burned down our house,” a man named Usman told CBS. The man’s sisters are said to have been raped and his younger brother murdered. According to his own statement, he was tortured in a makeshift prison. Among other things, the Wagner mercenaries are said to have put him in a sack for days, which they tied with a rope. But Usman was able to escape.
“A dog dies the death of a dog”
The brutal methods of the Wagner group are also known from other trouble spots around the world. Syria, Libya, Chad, Mali and most recently Ukraine. Wherever Prigozhin’s henchmen appear, they spread fear and terror. Prigozhin himself repeatedly boasts of his coolness in videos. Anyone who does not obey the orders of the Wagner commanders faces death.
After his men used a sledgehammer to murder a fighter who had defected to Ukraine in November 2022 and shared the video of the execution on social networks, Prigozhin mocked: “A dog dies the death of a dog.”
