A video posted in early January 2023 showed the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner with a mercenary who was described as Ivorian. By analysing posts shared on social networks and talking to people who knew him at different times in his life, the FRANCE 24 Observers team managed to discover the mercenary’s identity and retrace his journey. It all began as an Ivorian bus driver who came to Russia “to find a better life” and was sentenced to prison for drug trafficking, from where he was allegedly recruited by the Wagner Group.
His face began raising questions on social media on January 1, 2023, when a video was shared online showing Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group. It was published by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti and then shared on Twitter, Telegram and Facebook.
The oligarch and founder of the Russian mercenary group appeared next to a man “from the Ivory Coast”, despite the man himself asserting that he comes from Moscow.
In the video, the mercenary says he joined Wagner to “defend” his second homeland, even though he “does not yet” have Russian citizenship.
INVESTIGATION
From bus driver to soldier in Ukraine: The journey of an imprisoned Ivorian recruited by Wagner Group
Issued on: 03/02/2023 – 16:32
Text by:Observers team
11 min
A video posted in early January 2023 showed the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner with a mercenary who was described as Ivorian. By analysing posts shared on social networks and talking to people who knew him at different times in his life, the FRANCE 24 Observers team managed to discover the mercenary’s identity and retrace his journey. It all began as an Ivorian bus driver who came to Russia “to find a better life” and was sentenced to prison for drug trafficking, from where he was allegedly recruited by the Wagner Group.
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His face began raising questions on social media on January 1, 2023, when a video was shared online showing Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group. It was published by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti and then shared on Twitter, Telegram and Facebook.
The oligarch and founder of the Russian mercenary group appeared next to a man “from the Ivory Coast”, despite the man himself asserting that he comes from Moscow.
In the video, the mercenary says he joined Wagner to “defend” his second homeland, even though he “does not yet” have Russian citizenship.
“We should give citizenship to these defenders of our country,” Prigozhin said.
According to the Ria Fan news agency, run by Prigozhin himself, the mercenary had fought near Bakhmut, a town in eastern Ukraine that has been at the heart of the conflict since August 2022.
Prigozhin, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin, also describes in the video the way that the Ivorian was recruited, apparently from prison.
“He said he was from the Ivory Coast and asked if we needed French translators. I said, ‘First to the assault unit and if you survive, you will be a French interpreter’. He is alive and well, thank God,” Prigozhin smiled.
He doesn’t mention, however, why the man was incarcerated. “You should ask how he fought, not why he was in prison,” Prigozhin said.
The Wagner Group, a private Russian paramilitary group, has been operating outside the law since 2014. The group has deployed around 50,000 mercenaries to Ukraine, according to the US National Security Council.
Prigozhin introduces a “stormtrooper” from Wagner group. He is originally from Côte d’Ivoire, doesn’t have Russian citizenship but was brought to Bakhmut region of the frontlines from Russian jail. pic.twitter.com/zwPQqxUdkf— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) January 2,
A future ‘great president of the Ivory Coast’
Yevgeny Prigozhin released more information about the mercenary on January 4, via a post on his company Concord’s press service page on VKontakte. He said the man’s name is Aboya.
“I think he will make a great president of the Ivory Coast. But he doesn’t know it yet. I will discuss these plans with him later,” wrote the Wagner boss.
A future ‘great president of the Ivory Coast’
Yevgeny Prigozhin released more information about the mercenary on January 4, via a post on his company Concord’s press service page on VKontakte. He said the man’s name is Aboya.
“I think he will make a great president of the Ivory Coast. But he doesn’t know it yet. I will discuss these plans with him later,” wrote the Wagner boss.
The Ivorian mercenary also appears – this time as a cartoon character – in a propaganda clip criticising the French presence in Africa. The clip was attributed to the Wagner Group and shared on social networks on January 14, 2023.
In the video, French soldiers depicted as skeletons attack the Ivory Coast, which is then defended by soldiers from African armies and the Wagner Group. Among them is a man with the flag of the Ivory Coast and the name “K. Aboya” on his nametag.
But who is this mercenary? And how did an Ivorian end up fighting in the ranks of the Wagner Group in Ukraine? Thanks to the comments under some of the posts featuring the video and to open source tools, it was possible to determine his identity. This was confirmed to us by five of his relatives, all of whom requested anonymity.
When contacted by the FRANCE 24 Observers team, the man did not respond to our requests. For security reasons, we will not publish his first and last name and we will refer to him here as “A”.
Taxi and bus driver in Abidjan
Originally from the east of Côte d’Ivoire, A had been living in Yopougon, a suburb west of Abidjan.
One of his former colleagues remember him starting work as a taxi driver in the early 2000s. He then joined SOTRA, the Société des Transports Abidjanais (Abidjan Transport Company), in 2008 as a “machinist”, the title given to bus drivers. He was assigned to the bus depot in Cocody, a suburb north of Abidjan, according to several other drivers.
On his Facebook page, there are plenty of posts showing this period of his life. Some show the buses parked in what seems to be a depot, for example, or colleagues driving their buses. In another post, he complains about passengers leaving graffiti on the bus.
To supplement his salary, he also ran side businesses, such as a video store, where he showed movies, and PlayStation lounges, where people could come play video games.
Those who knew him during this time described him as a “quiet, smiling, cheerful guy” and a “respectful young man”.
Setting off on “an adventure” to Russia
A left Ivory Coast in 2014 or 2015, taking out a bank loan to go to Russia.
“He wanted to ‘go on an adventure’, to ‘look for himself’, as we say here”, one of his former friends explained to our team. “It was a way to start a new, peaceful life. Here we think that when you work abroad, you earn more money.”
“He left to see new horizons, like many young Ivorians who want to try their luck in Europe,” another of his acquaintances also reported.
On his Facebook page, his first post geo-located in Russia dates from August 1, 2015. Several photos show him in Moscow, in front of the State Historical Museum in December 2015, filming the snow in January 2016, on Red Square or in the Evropeyskiy shopping centre in July 2016.
In Russia, he started going by another name, as his VKontakte profile shows.
He was employed for about a year as a taxi driver in a company run by another Ivorian, whom he met through mutual friends. Several photos published on his Facebook account show him beside or inside a car.
According to a relative who knew him in Moscow, he “liked Russia” where he earned more money than in Ivory Coast. He reportedly talked about “settling down there”.
Photos posted on his Facebook profile show him with other Ivorians, but also with Russians, including at football matches he occasionally attended.
Drug trafficking
But in Russia, A is also said to have started dealing drugs, as one of his former friends told the FRANCE 24 Observers team. According to the friend, this decision was partly motivated by the difficulty of working within the legal framework as a foreigner.
This is what led him to Russian prisons. In a video dated August 10, 2017 published on the Moscow police’s YouTube channel, he appears in the back of a car, next to a policeman.
The representative of the Russian interior ministry who speaks in the video claims that the police found “182 rolls” containing “marijuana”, or 100 grams of the substance, during their search. The man, described as “from West Africa”, reportedly “denied any involvement with the drugs found”.
“The criminal case was opened under the article of attempted sale of narcotic substances. The article provides for up to eight years imprisonment,” the journalist explains in the video.
Russian prison
He was sentenced to a prison term, where life was “difficult”, according to a relative he spoke to while there. It is there that he is said to have improved his command of Russian, explaining the proficiency he showed in the recently shared video
