The leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has released a new video in which he claims to be in Africa, as reported by several foreign media outlets based on messages from Telegram channels affiliated with the Russian paramilitary group.
Evgueni Prigojine, the head of the Wagner militia, who has been in exile since his attempted coup in Russia last June, broadcasted a video on Tuesday morning in which he asserts that he is in Africa. “We’re working. Temperature +50°C. Everything we love,” declares the leader of the Wagner mercenaries on camera. According to the Wagner Group, the video, released overnight from Monday to Tuesday, was produced from the African continent.
“We are recruiting strong men and continuing to carry out the tasks that were set and that we promised to fulfill,” says 62-year-old Prigozhin, as a phone number for those who want to join the group is displayed. “Wagner is making Russia even greater on all continents and Africa freer. Justice and happiness for the African people. We make life a nightmare for ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and other thugs.”
According to the Wall Street Journal’s correspondent for American foreign affairs, the video was filmed in the Sahel, the strip of African land bordered by the Sahara Desert to the north and the humid tropical region around the equator. This is the first time since the Wagner Group’s failed coup attempt in Moscow on June 24 that Yevgeny Prigozhin has appeared on camera. His silhouette had been seen in a previous video released in the middle of the summer, purportedly filmed in Belarus. He later appeared in a photograph taken in Saint Petersburg.
