Wagner Allies in Africa Look to Future Without Group’s Leader

“If he is dead, it’s a pity. At a personal level, he was a friend,” Fidèle Gouandjika, a security adviser to President Faustin-Archange Touadéra of the Central African Republic, said of Prigozhin, recalling how the Wagner boss once sent him T-shirts bearing the group’s skull insignia.

More than 1,000 Wagner mercenaries have been providing personal security for Touadéra and working with the country’s military to fight rebels. Western governments and international rights groups have accused Wagner fighters in the Central African Republic of killing, kidnapping and torturing civilians. Wagner also runs a string of businesses in the country, including a sprawling gold mine, a vodka distillery and a brewery.