The Wagner empire has a large footprint across Africa and the Middle East that is now in danger of disintegration following its founder’s apparent death.
The interests stretch from Madagascar up through a swathe of central African countries, north to Sudan and into Syria, with at least 70 companies linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The empire consists of diamond mines and armies of mercenaries that prop up autocratic governments but are also an extension of Russian foreign policy.
Its net worth is understood to reach into billions of dollars that could now be carved up either among Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle or Yevgeny Prigozhin’s henchmen.
In Syria on 24 June, immediately after the failed mutiny, Russian military police arrested a number of Wagner commanders and have since moved to control the group’s main Middle East hub.
The mercenaries were hired to protect Syria’s oil and gasfields controlling an area extending to more than 25,000 square kilometres and were employed by a Prigozhin company called Evro Polis, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
In Sudan, since 2017 a Prigozhin-controlled company called Meroe Gold has been exploiting its gold resources by taking raw product from artisanal miners into its processing plant 400km north of Khartoum, the capital.
Much of the cash goes into Kremlin coffers reportedly to help finance the war in Ukraine. Wagner Group has also supported the Rapid Support Forces in its fight that began in April against the Sudanese Army with weapons flown in from Libya.
The group has been in Libya for five years. Wagner is now understood to have a base near the capital, as well as one near Benghazi, where it protects oilfields.
Elsewhere on the continent, Wagner is most dominant in the Central African Republic where a company called M-Finance mines gold, diamonds and timber.
Another outfit called Sewa Security Services employs Wagner troops who, among other roles, provide close protection to President Faustin-Archange Touadera, giving Moscow extensive political influence.
Shortly after the failed mutiny, more mercenaries arrived in the Central African Republic, apparently to help Mr Touadera in a referendum to extend his term.
Wagner’s most lucrative gold operation lies in the Ndassima mine the Central African Republic that is run by Midas Resources, a company now under US sanctions. It is said to have the potential to make billions of dollars in profit over the next decade.
Midas is also connected to people involved in Wagner’s mining activities in Madagascar that it runs in conjunction with the government.
There is also a heavy Wagner military presence in Mali, a landlocked country in West Africa, where its harsh tactics against ISIS-linked insurgents is said to be fuelling extremism.
But half of Wagner companies lie inside Russia itself, varying from property to government contracting, as well as owning luxury items such as boats, and as Wednesday’s incident demonstrated, luxury jets.
All of this, it appears, will soon fall fully into the Kremlin’s grasp.
Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Match info
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Liverpool v Porto, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
Ipaf in numbers
Established: 2008
Prize money: $50,000 (Dh183,650) for winners and $10,000 for those on the shortlist.
Winning novels: 13
Shortlisted novels: 66
Longlisted novels: 111
Total number of novels submitted: 1,780
Novels translated internationally: 66
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Director: Peyton Reed
Starring: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas
Three stars
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
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