What next for Wagner’s African empire?

Until the CARevents of the past week it seemed that the Wagner Group’s next outpost was more likely to be Burkina Faso than Belarus. But on June 27th arrived in the latter, as part of a deal between the mutinous leader of the paramilitary network and Vladimir Putin. From there Mr Prigozhin hopes to run the brutal African operations that have become crucial not just to his empire but to the Kremlin’s approach to the continent.Wagner has carried out “a huge number of tasks in the interests of the Russian Federation” in African and Arab countries, Mr Prigozhin complained in a Telegram message on June 26th. The mercenary group has sent fighters to five African states, including the Central African Republic () and Mali, where its operations will continue, insisted Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister. Wagner has also had some sort of presence in at least another seven countries on the continent (as well as ).