Moscow said Friday the Wagner mercenary group, which recently attempted a short-lived mutiny in Russia, would continue to work in Africa if regional governments decided to maintain contracts with the private military group.
The comments from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov come as the Kremlin moves to dissolve the organisation by handing its military hardware to the regular army and offering exile to fighters who rebelled.
"The future of the agreements between African countries and the Wagner private military company is above all up to the governments of the countries concerned," Lavrov told reporters during a briefing.
Wagner was for years seen as an armed extension of Moscow's influence in Africa but its overseas operations have been called into question by its leader's failed revolt.
The group and leader Yevgeny Prigozhin have been slapped with rounds of sanctions over what Western countries have described as their destabilising role in several African countries.
The UN human rights body last month reported that foreign forces - identified by the United States as Wagner - were involved in a massacre of at least 500 people in the central Malian town of Moura in March 2022.
Lavrov said that while some Russian military trainers had been deployed to the Central African Republic at the request of authorities, Wagner's presence in the region was beyond Moscow's jurisdiction.
"As for Wagner, which also worked there and in several other African countries, this agreement was concluded directly between the respective governments and Wagner," he added.
AFP