Watching the implosion of Russia's military cohesion has become an amusing spectator sport. But for Africans, it is deadly serious. While it has risen to global prominence because of its involvement in the invasion of Ukraine, Wagner is well known on the continent as Russia's violent enforcer, protecting authoritarian regimes while extracting minerals for its Kremlin masters.

Wagner's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who rose to power as head of a "private military company" (PMC) on Russian President Vladimir Putin's coattails, has always served a useful purpose in Russia's military machinery. Wagner has provided Russia with the ability to deploy "private" soldiers to do its dirty work in conflicts around the world, stretching from the Central African Republic to Syria.

According to the commentator Kennedy Sialoombe, Putin's association with Wagner was strong from the inception: "It is speculated that the group was formed to allow Russia to carry out operations that do not align with its official foreign policy objectives, thus enabling plausible deniability."

But everything changed once Wagner was assigned to assist with the conquest of Ukraine. It was given a licence to expand its force by, among other things, recruiting Russian convicts and was allocated heavy military equipment and supplies.

Prigozhin saw that, if he could show he was critical to Russian security, he could vastly improve his standing. But there is no honour among thieves, so it was inevitable that the Russian military, after suffering countless defeats and demonstrating that it was far weaker than the world had been led to believe, would become jealous...