The day before his private plane crashed near Moscow, Yevgeny Prigozhin released a recruitment video for the Wagner Group.

¡°The Wagner PMC makes Russia even greater on all continents and Africa more free,¡± he says, dressed in military fatigues, hoisting an assault rifle and standing in a barren landscape he suggests is on the continent. ¡°Justice and happiness for the African people.¡±

Prigozhin apparently spent his last days in Africa. His presumed death will reverberate across the continent, where he built a business empire over the past five years, becoming an iconoclastic celebrity in places like Mali and the Central African Republic, whose presidents have lost an important ally.