Russian mercenaries in Africa

Right now there are confusing stories about the Wagner group turning against the Russian military.

 

BBC stories LINK LINK2 and a lot of people are following it on Twitter.

A lot of the civilian atrocities in the Ukraine are blamed on the Wagner group. I have no idea how much is true because the propaganda from that war is so confusing.

However, the Wagner group has worked as mercenaries in Africa, and were suspected to be responsible for atrocities there.

AlJ article from April 2022:

When abuses were reported in recent weeks in Mali – fake graves designed to discredit French forces; a massacre of some 300 people, mostly civilians – all evidence pointed to the shadowy mercenaries of Russia’s Wagner Group. 

 Even before these feared professional soldiers joined the assault on Ukraine, Russia had deployed them to under-the-radar military operations across at least half a dozen African countries. Their aim: to further President Vladimir Putin’s global ambitions, and to undermine democracy.

 Analysts estimate Wagner operates with only a few hundred to 2,000 mercenaries in a country. Many are ex-Russian military intelligence, Siegle said, but because it is a private force the Kremlin can deny responsibility for Wagner’s actions. The real price is paid by ordinary people.

 the Wagner Group has been active in the Sudan and is suspected to be meddling in the military coup there, but without neutral observers on the ground it is hard to verify this.LINK LINK2

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lots of folk in the west are aghast at claims of CIA interference in foreign countries, but they ignore that there are other folks doing this too.

sigh

This is cross posted from my main.