Wagner Group reportedly rakes in $10 million-a-month from instability in Mali

Fighters of Wagner Group pose for a picture as they get deployed near the headquarters of the Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023Reuters ©provided by Business Insider Africa

A new report claims that mercenaries associated with the Wagner Group are reportedly making $10 million per month through their involvement in the ongoing conflict in Mali.

・Wagner Group reportedly makes $10 million per month through its involvement in the ongoing conflict in Mali.

・U.S. intelligence experts believe the mercenary group is profiting from the proxy war, which has seen hundreds of civilians killed and wounded.

・Mali and Russia claim that the fighters are not mercenaries but trainers assisting local troops in combating an insurgency.

The report suggests that the Wagner Group is leveraging the ongoing terror and instability in Mali to exchange African gold, thereby contributing to funding Vladimir Putin’s military activities.

According to Express.co.uk, Business is booming in Africa for the Wagner Group due to proxy wars that have caused chaos and sparked horrific bloodshed.

The group, formerly led by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, who passed away in August this year, was invited to Mali to combat Islamic State terrorists following the military junta’s seizure of power in a coup in 2021.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private-mercenary group.REUTERS/Yulia Morozova/File Photo

A portrait of Yevgeny Prigozhin at a memorial for the dead Wagner Group leader in Moscow. A former senior Kremlin official told Insider that Prigozhin’s death was

Since then, the Wagner Group has supported the military regime, with both Mali and Russia asserting that the fighters are not mercenaries but trainers assisting local troops in combating an insurgency by Islamist militants.

However, U.S. intelligence experts hold a different view, asserting that Moscow has been accused of earning huge profits on the back of Wagner’s turning Mali into a battleground, which has seen hundreds of civilians killed and wounded.

U.S. intelligence experts believe the mercenary group (Wagner Group) is benefiting from its activities in Mali to the tune of $10 million per month.

Putin with African leaders and heads of delegations at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg on July 28.ALEXEY DANICHEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Speaking to The Sun, Professor Salvador Sánchez Tapi, an expert in conflict analysis at the University of Navarra, emphasised that the Wagner Group provides a comprehensive range of violence, atrocities, and human rights violations.

He affirmed that in Mali, anything related to bolstering the junta takes precedence over improving the overall security situation in the country.

The scrutiny of Wagner Group’s atrocities in Africa is heightened as the Kremlin reportedly shows increasing interest in Mali’s gold as a means to finance the war in Russia-Ukraine.

This belief is compounded by the recent agreement between Mali and Russia last week to construct the largest gold refinery in Mali. Experts speculate that this agreement would enable Putin to “control all gold production” in Mali.

Meanwhile, Moscow declared last week that it has commenced dispatching complimentary grain supplies to six African nations, totalling up to 200,000 tons, as promised by President Vladimir Putin in July.

Moscow declared last week that it has commenced dispatching complimentary grain supplies to six African nations, totalling up to 200,000 tons

Dmitry Patrushev, the Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation, announced in a statement on Telegram that vessels bound for Somalia and Burkina Faso had already set sail from Russian ports, and additional shipments were en route to Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Mali, and the Central African Republic (CAR).