Future of Russia's Wagner contracts with African governments a matter for them - Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that the future of contracts signed between various African countries and the Wagner mercenary group was a matter for those governments who had concluded such agreements.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that the future of contracts signed between various African countries and the Wagner mercenary group was a matter for those governments who had concluded such agreements. Lavrov said Wagner had worked in Central African Republic (CAR) and other countries on the basis of contracts drawn up directly with the governments concerned.

He also said that Russia's defence ministry had long had "several hundred" military advisers working in CAR. Wagner mercenaries, who have been heavily involved in the Ukraine conflict, staged a brief mutiny last Saturday, taking control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marching on Moscow before a deal abruptly ended their revolt.