The start of a thousand mile journey.
Across vast deserts, to an unseen conflict where Wagner fighters clash with Jihadist and rebel groups.
It’s impossible to operate here without a convoy of heavy security…
and dressing to blend in.
It’s a dangerous and difficult journey in the north of Mali,
but it’s the only way to reach camps like this one.
This is the only school in the area.
These children are being taught to recite verses from the Quran.
It’s the only education they’re ever likely to receive.
They are orphans who lived in an area controlled by al-Qaeda
until Islamic State attacked and killed their parents.
We have spent five days on the road to reach this remote camp.
these children’s stories may have been hidden from the world
but they are another generation whose lives have been destroyed by the so-called Islamic State.
Fatima, along with her daughter and grandchildren,
walked hundreds of miles from the village they lived in to reach the camp.
IS forced us to come here.
They forced us to come here, all our men were killed, they burned all our food.
There’s little in the way of medicine or food and some of the children are suffering from a fever.
When we arrived, we found water and shelter, so we stayed here.
Jihadists are on the retreat in the Middle East,
but their grip of the African Sahel region is growing.
Most of the people in this camp used to live in towns and villages that were controlled by a group linked to al-Qaeda.
Mousa, like many here, is supportive of al-Qaeda,
which is made up of local people from Mali.
He says he prefers their strict but ordered way of governing to the more violent one practised by Islamic State.
Al-Qaeda treats us according to Islam.
IS does not treat us as Muslims.
IS says it is looking for al-Qaeda, but in reality it only kills innocent people.
It burned their homes, their livestock and their shops.
This is not how you treat Muslims.
Al-Qaeda helps us.
It commands us to pray and follow the religion of the Prophet.
As the conflict between the jihadist groups increased,
help from the West was pushed aside,
as support on the streets for Russia grew.
Many in Mali looked to Wagner and Yevgeny Prigozhin.
And a military operation by the French ended as the mercenary group’s fighters took up arms in Mali.
Just days ago, Prigozhin appeared in this video -
promising to rid countries of Islamist threats.
Some of his supporters claim the clip was filmed in Africa,
possibly even in Mali.
The Wagner Group conducts reconnaissance and search activities.
We make Russia even greater on all continents.
And Africa even more free.
We are for justice and happiness for the African peoples.
We terrify “ISIS”, “Al-Qaeda” and other gangsters.
Even before Prigozhin’s death,
sites like this made the West suspicious of the mercenary group’s ambitions in Africa.
And here's one of the reasons why Wagner is fighting here in Mali.
Natural resources like this gold make huge profits for the group.
This is one of Mali’s many gold processing plants.
It’s only a small operation,
with little heavy machinery and much of the panning and smelting done by hand.
But with hundreds of sites like this across the country
Mali manages to produce more than 60 tonnes of gold a year,
making it one of Africa’s top five exporters.
Wagner has also been accused of human rights violations in Africa.
These pictures, released by the French military before they left,
allegedly show fighters burying bodies in a mass grave in eastern Mali.
Bilal Ag Sharif, the leader of a Tuareg and Arab rebel group in the area,
told us Wagner had not helped the security situation in Mali.
[Bilal Ag Sharif / Leader, MNLA]
In the areas Wagner are operating in north and central Mali they committed a lot of crimes
taking people’s belongings, killing innocent people indiscriminately.
They have had no positive effect on security in the areas they operate in.
On the contrary there are more displaced people leaving these areas.
In addition to this chaos there is a growing power vacuum.
UN bases - like this one - are pulling out.
Leaving more areas under the Jihadists and Russian influence.
The chaos we’ve seen during our journey is spreading across the region,
but - as it grows - there’s very little Russia or the West can do to stop it.