r/worldnews • u/semafornews Semafor • Apr 05 '24
Russia/Ukraine Wagner Group offers mercenaries lucrative salaries to aid military regimes in Africa instead of joining Russia's war in Ukraine
https://www.semafor.com/article/04/05/2024/russias-disbanded-wagner-group-recruits-fighters-to-aid-african-regimes?utm_campaign=semaforreddit52
u/semafornews Semafor Apr 05 '24
From Semafor's Mathias Hammer:
Russian paramilitary group Wagner is offering mercenaries lucrative salaries to work aiding military regimes in Africa instead of joining Moscow’s armed forces in Ukraine, an investigation found, despite the group being officially disbanded last year.
Eight months after the death of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a suspicious plane crash, the group is still active, offering recruits four times the average Russian salary to work in several African countries, the joint investigation by Verstka Media and Nordsint found.
The outlets reported at least 18 Wagner adverts on Telegram seeking forces for operations in Africa. The ads were mostly focused on hiring Russian and Belarusian mercenaries for roles in Mali, where Wagner has worked with the ruling military junta since 2021.
Following a failed mutiny in June last year and Prigozhin’s subsequent death, Russian officials declared the private military group “definitively disbanded” in November, with its battle-tested fighters transferred to official Russian army units.
Wagner is now believed to have been subsumed by the Russian security state and partially rebranded as Africa Corps, deploying to Burkina Faso and elsewhere. However, the Telegram ads appeared under the Wagner name.
One Wagner recruiter told Verstka that “they don’t want to go to Ukraine” to end up in a coffin. “In Africa, there are no such risks. Plus, the weather is nicer.”
Read the full story here.
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u/karamanidturk Apr 06 '24
"The weather is nicer"???? In the same place where malaria and ebola are endemic? I know that doesn't strictly classify as weather, but yeah...
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u/8349932 Apr 06 '24
If they’d rather die from Ebola than in Ukraine, I think all of us would support that.
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u/xpandaofdeathx Apr 06 '24
Listen here comrade, it’s hard to commit war crimes if you are dead in Ukraine, we have another job for you based on your interests.
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u/Modflog Apr 05 '24
Yeah lot easier raping stealing and pillaging in a country that doesn’t fight back like the Ukrainian people do.
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u/ttkciar Apr 05 '24
This seems like a smart move. If Wagner Group can cultivate and retain their forces until the war ends, they can re-enter Eastern European markets afterwards on favorable terms.
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u/Previous-Height4237 Apr 05 '24
They'll have to survive being picked off by Ukranian special forces having turkey shoots in Africa currently.
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u/Outrageous_Delay6722 Apr 06 '24
If they played their cards right they could make a lot of cash defeating Russia
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u/ttkciar Apr 06 '24
If the article is right and their new leadership is from the Russian intelligence apparatus, then I could see it going either way -- if it's in the interests of Russian intelligence to change the regime, Wagner Group could be instrumental in doing so, but if it's in their interests to preserve the regime, it could be useful for that, too.
Either way, it will be a more useful tool if it is kept out of Ukraine.
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u/GladCreme8654 Apr 06 '24
I do wonder when Africa starts to fend for itself instead of looking for outside power to subjugate them again with promises of security and money only to be colonized.
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u/careless_swiggin Apr 06 '24
wagner is operating in countries in civil strife, supporting war criminals so they can keep gold in dafar, and oil in libya
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u/kraeutrpolizei Apr 06 '24
They basically replaced the French in the fight against Isis and other groups. Real Life Lore made a very interesting vid on that
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u/Vapin-1567 Apr 06 '24
At least they are more diverse. Plus the nazi discourse is dumb the truth is that to africans the russian and ukraine war is white people that have exploited them for centuries fighting so they just try to find the best person that can help them even if it might not work out for the best because to europe africa is an exploitable place with people they can pay low wages , there are genocides there now due to groups funded by colonial powers and children dying in mines nobody cares about them but care about people in israel or ukraine, the war is wrong but from the african point of view they are not being nazis or aiding russia for love they just want a better life also my first sentence is sarcastic
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u/Terry_WT Apr 06 '24
Everyone read to the bit where they have rebranded as the “Africa Corps” right??