US to take action against Wagner in Africa: State Dept

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
27 Jun 2023 23:18
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The State Department spokesperson said that the actions will be specified later this week, noting that they are not related to Wagner's attempted armed mutiny this past weekend.

Visitors wearing military camouflage stand at the entrance of the ‘PMC Wagner Centre’ (AFP)

US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller announced that the United States will be taking action against PMC Wagner Group to counteract the group's influence in Africa.

"We will continue to take actions to hold [Wagner Group] accountable, and in fact, we will have further announcements to make on holding Wagner accountable in the very near future," Miller said during a press briefing.

Miller said that the actions will be specified later this week, noting that they are not related to Wagner's attempted armed mutiny this past weekend.

In regards to the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Wagner, Miller said he believes that he is in Belarus and has no reason to doubt the Belarusian President's statements about Prighozin's arrival to Belarus.

"I don't have any United States assessment to offer about the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin, but I also don't have any reason to doubt the announcement made by the government of Belarus," Miller said.

Earlier today, it was reported that a plane linked to the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus.

The private jet "landed at the Machulishchi military airfield near Minsk at 07:40," as per the Belarusian Hajun project, which tracks the country’s airspace.

The Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft departed from a location in southwest Russia that borders Ukraine, according to information from the flight tracking website flightradar24 that was given by the Hajun project.

In further detail, a second Russian private jet that had departed from St. Petersburg had also arrived in Belarus 20 minutes after the Wagner plane landed at the military base.

This comes shortly after the chief of Russia's Wagner group broke his silence in a Telegram audio message on Monday, two days after staging the armed mutiny, insisting that he did not want to overthrow Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin did not reveal his location but is reported to have moved to Belarus following a deal brokered by Minsk to end the mutiny.