Veteran African mercenaries
say politics and money can’t make up for lack of experience.
By Pjotr Sauer, The Moscow
Times
A
few weeks after Wagner’s arrival in September, reports started coming out of
Mozambique that the group’s mercenaries were being ambushed, killed and
beheaded in Cabo Delgado.
Two Mozambique army sources told The Moscow Times in October that at least seven
Russians had been killed by the insurgency that month. Over a dozen independent
analysts, mercenaries and security experts working in the region have since
told The Moscow Times that Wagner is struggling.
“You
have to realize this is one of the toughest environments in the world,” said Al
Venter, a veteran South Africa journalist who has written extensively about
mercenaries on the continent.
“The consensus is that Wagner
has almost no experience of the kind of primitive bush warfare being waged in
there. They are going to come very badly unstuck,” he added.
Cabo Delgado is one of the
poorest and least developed areas in the region. It has limited basic
infrastructure, including a lack of roads and hospitals, that makes it an
environment that is “ideal” for ambushes, according to a Mozambican
intelligence specialist based in the area who wished to remain anonymous.
“The undergrowth is so thick
there that all the high-tech equipment Wagner brought ceases to be effective.
The Russians arrived with drones, but they can’t actually use them,” the
specialist said.
Jasmine
Opperman, a terrorism expert based in South Africa, believes “a perfect storm”
has formed around Wagner in Mozambique.
“The Russians don’t understand the local culture, don’t
trust the soldiers and have to fight in horrible conditions against an enemy
that is gaining more and more momentum. They are in over their heads.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.