Prigozhin’s Revolt: Are Wagner’s Mercenaries Leaving the Central African Republic?

The ambitions of Yevgeny Prigozhin put an end to Wagner’s activities in Africa. It is too early to tell, but according to several foreign sources, an unknown number of Russian paramilitary mercenaries have left the Central African Republic in recent days. The information has been vehemently refuted by the government of Central Africa.

While the private paramilitary group has been active in Africa for several years now, the status of the company and its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is more uncertain than at any time since his failed insurgency in Russia on June 23 and 24. The operation took the mercenaries several hundred kilometers from Moscow before they surrendered under the terms of an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the details of which are unknown.

But its interventions abroad, in particular in Syria and in a number of African countries (in particular, in Sudan, the Central African Republic, Mali), Moscow has not yet publicly called into question. As soon as the end of the rebellion was announced, the Central African government even confirmed that Wagner’s activities would “continue”.

“Russia has subcontracted Wagner, and if Russia no longer agrees with Wagner, then it will send us a new contingent,” said Fidel Guandjika, special adviser to the President of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, after the uprising interrupted by Prigozhin.

Recall, according to several investigations, Wagner offered his services in the police to the governments of several African countries in exchange for contracts for the development of resources, in particular mining.

The planes would have taken off from the Central African Republic

However, several sources report movements. “Start in the air. They reduce the aerodynamic profile. It’s probably a mixture of Wagner’s current difficulties and President Touadéra’s limited checkbook,” said a French source familiar with the matter.

“We have aircraft movements, positions that remain. I do not have separate lists, but we saw the lists of aircraft that took off, Il-76 “(Russian military transport aircraft), confirmed a source in foreign security. This aircraft type has been regularly used since 2018 to transport Wagner’s men to and from Bangui (Central African capital) for staff rotation.

“What is circulating is well founded,” added the same foreign source. “We are also looking at what is happening in Mali, but at this stage we are not seeing anything.”

A French security source, for its part, justified the move with “great uncertainty about the payment of wages in the coming months and fears of possible reprisals against the families of mercenaries who will remain with Wagner.” According to her, the latter will be offered a choice between returning to civilian life, enlisting in the Russian army, or enrolling in other Russian private companies.

Fidel Guangjica denied this information on Friday. “There is no exit of Russian troops from the CAR to a foreign country, they are all there, on the territory, and what these media say is just false statements,” he said.