Prigozhin claims in new video to be in Africa

Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has appeared in a new video where he claims to be in Africa, with the mercenary leader pitching his private military company’s mission on the continent.

On a Wagner-affiliated Telegram account, Prigozhin is shown in a video posted this week standing in an empty field with what appears to be trucks carrying soldiers rolling through the background.

Prigozhin claims in the short clip that the Wagner Group is “making Russia greater on all continents and Africa even freer.”

“We make life nightmare for ISIS, al-Qaeda,” Prigozhin says in the video, referring to terrorist groups in the region. We “bring justice and happiness to the African peoples,” he adds.

The Hill has not independently verified when or where the video was filmed.

Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus in June after leading an armed rebellion toward Moscow, seeking to rally thousands of his soldiers in what he called a march for justice.

The mercenary leader had for months railed against Russia’s Defense Ministry for what he called mass elitist corruption and a failure to carry out the war in Ukraine.

Just more than 100 miles from Russia’s capital, Prigozhin backed down after reaching a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus and escape charges.

That exile has apparently been short-lived, with Prigozhin appearing in Russia’s St. Petersburg and now, if the video shared publicly is accurate, in Africa.

Prigozhin also shared a link on his own Telegram account encouraging investors from Russia to visit Wagner’s projects in the Central African Republic. The link is from Russia House, a cultural center connected to Russian elites and oligarchs.

Wagner Group has operated across Africa for years, particularly in the Central African Republic, where his soldiers have taken control of gold mines. The Kremlin has used Wagner to gain influence in African countries.