According to the channel, Wagner personnel in the Central African Republic and Mali have already been “thinned out” and partly replaced by Moscow’s newly formed “Africa Corps,” a unit under the defense ministry. Those who remain are being told they will move to a camp in Belarus, although the relocation has not been officially confirmed.
The mercenaries are now commanded by Dmitry “Salem” Podolsky, a former GRU special‑forces officer who serves as an adviser to CAR President Faustin‑Archange Touadéra.
Speaking at the Russian House cultural center in Bangui on May 1, Podolsky urged staff to honor Wagner founders Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, who died in a plane crash last year following their short‑lived mutiny against the Russian military.
Wagner fighters were first reported in Belarus in mid‑2023 after a Kremlin‑brokered deal ended the rebellion. Belarusian monitoring group Hajun said some of those men remained at a training site near Vitebsk and have been instructing African allies in drone warfare.
The Kremlin has not commented on the latest reports. Wagner’s future was thrown into doubt after Prigozhin’s death and Russia’s defense ministry created the Africa Corps to absorb its overseas contracts. Western officials say Wagner had thousands of operatives guarding mines and advising governments in CAR, Mali, Sudan and Libya at its peak.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in April that “a small number” of Wagner veterans were still in the country but denied they posed a threat to neighboring NATO members.
(jh)
Source: Belsat