Sent on different African fronts to destabilize, support dictators or play on the side between the different contenders with targeted actions - military blitz - of different kinds: now the thesis on the mercenary army present in a massive and influential way in the continent from which migrants who land in the Mediterranean (and in Italy) takes shape. Accused of atrocities by the international community, the notorious mercenaries of the Wagner Group - founded in 2013 by Dmitri Utkin and then taken over by Yevgheni Prigozhin, an ally of Vladimir Putin despite the frictions
of recent weeks for the battle of Bakhmut - have operated on almost all continents, as a "longa manus" of Moscow.

The "Longa Manus of Moscow"

The Kremlin officially denies any link, but in fact Russia expands its influence, both political and economic, in every country where the Wagner brigade is called to act: from Europe to Latin America, but above all in the Middle East and Africa, where most of the migrants who try to land in Italy come from.


Against the rebels in Syria

In Syria, the paramilitary group is reported for the first time in 2015, after the beginning of the Russian military intervention on the side of Damascus in the civil war: they are present in the country participating in several combat missions against rebel-controlled areas and against ISIS cells (at least until the end of 2021).

In Libya, Russian paramilitaries would be present in Cyrenaica, in the east of the country, since 2018 to support General Khalifa Haftar in the civil war against the government of Tripoli (recognized by the international community), and in the conquest of the southern Libyan regions. In 2019-2020, Wagner's militiamen helped Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army in the unsuccessful assault on the capital, bringing his men about ten kilometers from the city center.

According to several analysts, Mali is one of the main countries of departure and transit of sub-Saharan migrants: the scene of two coups in 2020 and 2021, it broke in 2022 the anti-jihadist alliance of the Sahel countries (called G5 and supported by France), and the defense agreements with Paris, determining the withdrawal of the Barkhane French mission and the closure of the European Takuba mission. Since then, the military junta has in fact moved closer to Russia and opened its doors to the Wagner Group to fight Islamic militiamen. Russian mercenaries are accused of killing several hundred civilians as well.

The hands of the mercenary army have reached Burkina Faso, which is following the same path as Mali. In the Central African Republic, Wagner's men were linked to the killing in 2018 of three Russian journalists (Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguyev and Kirill Radchenko) who were investigating the presence of mercenaries in Central Africa. They are accused of having participated in numerous massacres perpetrated together with the regular armed forces of the country.

Finally, Sudan, here in 2017 mercenaries were sent to support militarily the forces of then President Omaral-Bashir against South Sudan, and to protect the mines of gold, uranium and diamonds.

The following year they would be sent to the Sudanese region of Darfur to train the military and help the government in suppressing the protests that toppled al Bashir.