“There were 90 of us. Sixty died in that first assault, killed by mortar fire. A handful remained wounded. If one group is unsuccessful, another is sent right away.”
“The first steps into the forest were difficult because of all the landmines spread out. Out of 10 guys, seven were killed immediately. You can’t help the wounded. The Ukrainians were firing heavily on us, so even if their wounds were minor, you’ve got to keep going, otherwise, you’re the one getting hit by the fire.”
“Four hundred (Wagner fighters) were brought, and then more and more, all the time."
Drowned in the din of artillery, gunfire and screams of dying men on the killing fields of Bakhmut, Ukraine, are the last cries of soldiers who will never be honoured with medals or obituaries. They are mercenaries of the Wagner Group, an infamous Russian PMC (private military company) owned by the shadowy Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ambitious crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His troops for hire are dying in thousands in the war, which started in February 2022. In March, the US government estimated that of the 50,000 Wagner mercenaries deployed, 30,000 are dead or wounded.
MERCHANTS OF DEATH
The Ukraine war has exposed the worst-kept dirty secret in global conflict: mercenaries. The Wagner Group, which comprises former Spetsnaz (Soviet Special Forces) soldiers, is employed by the governments of Syria, Libya and Venezuela to liquidate rebels, dissenters and Islamists. Its Africa operations include political activities in Madagascar, Mozambique, Congo, Angola, Senegal, Rwanda, South Sudan, Guinea, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Chad and South Africa. Referred to as ‘Putin’s shadow army’, the group is named after Richard Wagner, the führer’s favourite composer.
Lukas Aubin, research director at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs, told France24 channel, “Besides Prigozhin, we also have the militia of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. These ‘entrepreneurs of influence’—politicians or oligarchs—spread their influence and that of Russia internationally.” While the downside is that there are no medals for valour, the upside is
a fat paycheck and private loot: after Gaddafi fell, Wagner troops raped and murdered their way across Libya to secure its oil resources. They are assisting the Russian Army do the same in Syria on behalf of its president Bashar al-Assad. PMCs fulfil key political, economic and strategic requirements of the governments that hire them.
(1) The fewer dead soldiers of official armies sent back home, the lesser the political backlash
(2) Plausible deniability for war crimes
(3) Capture and control key resources like mining and petroleum products on behalf
of autocratic regimes
(4) Engineer coups and carry out assassinations since they aren’t bound by regular laws
(5) Intelligence gathering, political strategising.
“Today’s mercenaries are technologically proficient and innovative as fighters of hybrid wars, but there is an increasing trend to employ them using conventional tactics and structures,” says Lt Gen. (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain, former Commander, Srinagar-based 15 Corps, now Chancellor, Central University. He adds that PMC’s potential to employ weapons of mass destruction will open a Pandora’s box and cause conflicts which will cross all lines of basic ethics, threatening humanity’s existence.
Private pacts and dirty deeds
The most infamous PMC is Blackwater USA (renamed Academi in 2011), which emerged as the face of private military action in the Middle East. Its marketing slogan was, ‘If we can protect the most hated man in Iraq, we can protect anyone, anywhere.’ Founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, the PMC’s first major assignment was in December 2003 to protect Lewis Paul Bremer III, leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq.
Blackwater’s mettle was proved when terrorists attacked Bremer’s car. He recalled the strike to Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, “Our convoy, as usual, consisted of two ‘up-armoured’ Humvees sheathed in tan slabs of hardened steel, a lead-armoured Suburban, our Suburban, and another armoured Suburban following, and two or more Humvees. Overhead, we had a pair of buzzing Bell helicopters with two Blackwater snipers in each.”
Inside the SUV, Bremer was contemplating going skiing in Davos when a “deafening” explosion happened, followed by automatic gunfire. “The Suburban’s armoured-glass rear window had been blown out by IED. And now AK-47 rounds were whipping through the open rectangle,” he says. The bravery of Blackwater troops consolidated its reputation. Prof. Ajay Darshan Behera of the Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, says,
“PMCs have functioned even in the Cold War years such as the MPRI, Keeny Meeny Services, etc., but the US has increasingly started outsourcing many aspects of war-fighting to them. Such operations include providing security and transportation.” In 2010, Prince left Blackwater. He has since become a Prigozhin doppelganger, doing dirty surveillance work for former US president Donald Trump such as sending agents to infiltrate the Democratic congressional campaigns and offering to subcontract for Wagner in Mozambique and Libya. Vanity Fair exposed that Prince covertly provided contractors to the CIA for drone bombings and assassinations. Over and above providing security for CIA officers, Blackwater personnel participated to capture or kill militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Death pvt ltd
Private armies have most boots on the ground in many restive African regions. The first modern PMC appeared in post-apartheid South Africa after its government demobilised special forces, which tortured and murdered freedom fighters. Left powerless, its senior security officers created Executive Outcomes, a formidable private military force. Its clients included the governments of Angola and Sierra Lone who used them to fight insurgents. It even offered its skills to the UN to stop the Rwandan genocide of 1994, but Kofi Annan refused, claiming “the world may not be ready to privatise peace”. Annan’s was an expensive ideology, given that eight lakh Rwandans died.
In 2008, Hollywood actor Mia Farrow suggested hiring Blackwater to end the genocide in Darfur, West Sudan, where a Black African-Arab civil war had been raging since 2003. Called ‘the first genocide of the 21st century,’ more than three million Sudanese were murdered. Sudan is still unsafe; last week, India rescued 3,862 of its citizens from the civil war-torn nation. “Not only are PMCs cost-effective, but are sometimes also more efficient than state armies, flexibility and swiftness being their USP. Since they operate in the grey zone, they are effective tools for states to evade accountability, and also prop up offensives without relocating forces from other strategic fronts,” says Harsh V Pant, Vice-President, Studies and Foreign Policy, Observer Research Foundation.
The nationalities and skills of mercenaries are as varied as their reputation. US-owned PMCs like Triple Canopy employ mostly former Ugandan and Peruvian Special Forces soldiers while DynCorp troops are fighting local rebels and drug runners in Iraq, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The efficiency of British PMC Erinys in protecting Iraqi oil fields won it a similar contract from the Congolese government. The Australian-owned Unity Resources upped its numbers in Iraq and continues ops in Africa, Central and South America, Asia and Europe.
The London-headquartered G4S operates in over 125 countries, and is considered the second-largest employer on earth. Behera elaborates, “The trend of hiring PMCs is higher in countries with a higher per capita GDP like the US, UK and Russia. They’ve been facing problems in recruiting for their standing armies, and have been, for long, involved in conflicts across the world. War is big business and private players are eager to get a chunk of the share.” Russia’s monthly spending on Wagner operatives is $150 million. But high wages come at a price: by 2010, for the first time in US history, more private soldiers were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan than service personnel.
Continent of conspiracies
When and how did modern mercenary armies begin to proliferate? Part of the answer concerns the change in world politics, the rise of terrorism and drug cartels. In post-colonial Africa in the mid-20th century, tribal warfare engulfed many countries, creating a fertile ground for black market arms. The aftermath of World War II left the world awash in weapons and demobbed troops. Some soldiers of fortune even became cult figures. A group of mercenaries nicknamed Les Affreux (The Frightfuls), fought in Congo during the decolonisation crisis in the 60s; films like The Wild Geese and The Dogs of War were based on the exploits of star guns-for-hire, who included ‘Mad’ Mike Hoare and Bob Denard.
Plagued by ethnic strife and assaults for custody of oil and mineral resources, many governments are forced to hire specialists to do what their poorly trained armies cannot: bring peace for a price. Nigeria’s military action, which emasculated Boko Haram, bore the fingerprints of its mercenaries. When the militants kidnapped 276 schoolgirls for “wives” in April 2014, a private army hired by Nigerian president Jonathan Goodluck, armed with Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships and South African Reva II troop carriers, put down the terrorists. But South African Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapise-Nqakula fumed, “They are mercenaries, whether they are training, skilling the Nigerian defence force, or scouting for them. The point is they have no business to be there.”
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY
Where business is—legit or not—private armies flourish. Africa, the Golden Triangle and Latin America together comprise the world’s largest narcotic territory. South America’s drug problem has turned the continent into a lucrative playground for PMCs. In 2011, the US Defence Department’s Counter Narco-Terrorism Program Office (CNTPO) awarded $3 billion in contracts to Blackwater, DynCorp and Lockheed Martin. CNTPO, whose mandate covers Pakistan and trans-Saharan Africa, claims to take the lead “for developing technology for inter-agency and multinational operations to disrupt, deter and deny narco-terrorist activities to reduce trafficking in illegal narcotics and materials that support global terrorist activities”. Jayadeva Ranade, member, National Security Advisory Board, and president, Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, says the US has been using mercenaries to battle drug cartels and disrupt their supply channels in a manner law enforcement agencies could not.
“They are useful in side-stepping the laws of the client or target country while allowing efforts, often illegal, to degrade the drug lords and cartels,” he elaborates. Hundreds of former American soldiers are hired by South American governments to burn cocoa fields, fly surveillance missions on cartel activity, and train local police. “It’s like a replay of Air America. You have these expatriates, guys who are hard drinkers, hanging out in local cat houses, who were involved in Southeast Asia and supporting the contras in Nicaragua, now running around South America,” Wayne Madsen, a covert-ops expert, told New York Post. In response, the cartels hire mercenaries themselves—former Colombian and Mexican elite soldiers to protect their interests. But fighting capacity alone doesn’t ensure victory, says Maj. Gen. (retd) Dhruv Katoch, Director, India Foundation. “While former military personnel may be employed by PMCs, their war capabilities are constrained by factors such as group cohesion, leadership issues and motivational levels.”
Even the good guys hire mercenaries. NGOs and aid agencies like CARE, Save the Children, CARITAS, and World Vision, operating in volatile regions in Africa and West Asia, employ private soldiers. The clientele of PMCs also includes global corporations which do business in remote, resource-loaded zones vulnerable to local warlords. Mining multinational Freeport-McMoRan used Triple Canopy soldiers to protect its properties in terrorist-infested Papua, Indonesia. DeWe Security personnel guard China’s National Petroleum Corporation in South Sudan.
Beijing has banned PMCs, but reports estimate 20 to 40 Private Security Companies (PSCs) are operating in 40 countries, and 7,000 PSCs are active domestically. PSCs project Chinese power overseas while protecting its infrastructure and nationals working in projects like the Belt and Road Initiative, and in Africa, Central Asia and Pakistan. “China is slow to use PMCs because of domestic security concerns. The regime is apprehensive of the Chinese people learning and using weapons since that could threaten it,” says Ranade, adding that Chinese security companies are unlike the PMCs elsewhere since their leadership comprise former security personnel and embedded CCP cells.
Mayday, Payday
The global private military services market was worth $258.11 billion in 2022, and is projected to grow to $446.81 billion by 2030. Most contractors are paid an estimated $9,000 to $22,500 per month, depending on their experience and nationality. British mercenary Dave Tomkins was offered $1 million by drug cartel Cali to kill Pablo Escobar. The daily pay of Silent Professionals’ maritime officers in Africa ranges between $700 and $800. The US government is the best customer of PMCs: a 2011 study found that up to half of the $14-trillion spent by Pentagon since 9/11 went to them. Though Scotland-based Aegis Defence Services shot Iraqi civilians in 2005, Western oil companies hired 5,000 of its soldiers for security operations. “While the lethality of missions determines pay checks, most engagements of mercenaries are short-term because it demands extreme physical fitness. As PMCs proliferate, the scope for effective Staff Officers and Senior Commanders with ability to strategise will increase. This is a domain with unlimited scope for expansion,” says Gen. Hasnain.
Today’s PMC scene is a United Nations of Death: former law enforcement officers of Colombia, Panama, El Salvador and Chile, who are experienced in fighting cartels and contras, find both adrenaline rush and money in the Middle East conflicts. Private soldiers are present in Kurdistan, hired by the militia to fight Syrian and Turk troops. Arab mercenaries from the UAE Special Forces are helping the Saudis counter Teheran-supported Houthis in Yemen. So are African mercenaries from Sudan, Chad and Eritrea. Even terrorists are hiring mercenaries. The Uzbekistan-based Malhama Tactical group only works for jihadi groups like Nusra Front in Syria, Turkistan Islamic Party and the Syrian branch of the Uighur group.
Mercenary might
Today’s mercenaries are no amateurs, gung-ho about defending democracy like the ex-soldiers from Britain, the US and Australia fighting the Russians in Ukraine. Proficient in modern warfare, experienced private soldiers have access to top-line war machines. The legendary firefight for the Syrian Conoco gas plant between American soldiers and Wagner mercenaries in 2018 is a case in point. On February 7, 40 US soldiers countered an assault by 500 Wagner militias who, along with Syrian government forces, attacked with Russian-made T-72 tanks. Documents obtained by The New York Times estimated 200 to 300 attackers dead. No US soldier was hurt. “It took America’s most elite troops and advanced aircraft four hours to repel 500 mercenaries. What happens when they have to face 1,000? 5,000? More?” asks former US Army officer Sean McFate in Mercenaries and War: Understanding Private Armies Today.
The nature of war is changing with new fronts opening up, new alliances forming and new tactics being formulated. A scenario in which armies fight for money, like the feared mercenary armies of Europe did during the Middle Ages, cannot be ruled out. It is one thing to unleash the dogs of war; it’s another to stop them from running wild.
The nationalities and skills of mercenaries are as varied as their reputation. US-owned PMCs like Triple Canopy employ mostly former Ugandan and Peruvian soldiers, while DynCorp troops are fighting rebels and drug runners in Iraq, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Soldiers for Sale: A Brief History
The word ‘mercenary’ sums up the purpose: the Latin merces means wages or pay. Until 1648, when the Thirty Years War ended in Europe, very few countries had standing armies. Feudal lords supplied kings with men in times of war. Hannibal crossed the Alps in 2018 BC with his 60,000-strong army that included mercenaries to attack Rome. The Ten Thousand was the army of Greek mercenaries employed by King Xenophon in 400 BC. The men who rent their swords are loyal only to their hirers: standing against Alexander’s invading force, which had 5,000 foreign mercenaries, were 10,000 Greek mercenaries in the Persian army. For 1,000 years, mercenaries fought for the Roman Empire. William the Conqueror couldn’t have conquered England without hired soldiers. Mercs dominated warfare: the Mamluks in Egypt and Syria, the Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors, the Italian condottieri, the German landsknechts and Swiss, Bretons, Gascons, Picards all fought for different masters. The condottieri were the most notorious—they would switch sides in an instant if the price was raised.
After the Industrial Revolution, wars became larger and more expensive. This prompted the rise of an unconventional startup: the military entrepreneur. They built and maintained private armies to be rented out at exorbitant prices to any king who needed their services. Count Albrecht von Wallenstein outfitted an army for the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II to become Europe’s richest man: ironically he was killed by his client. Bernard von Weimar provided armies for Sweden and France. Military enterprises were the first PPP model in warfare which ensured a mutually beneficial relationship. In 1659, Louis IV formed France’s first standing army of six infantry units.
More countries followed suit with larger armies. The 18th-century Prussian statesman, Friedrich von Schrötter, remarked famously: “Prussia was not a country with an army, but an army with a country.” Then states became military entrepreneurs themselves. Queen Elizabeth outfitted private warships to plunder enemy ships. The East India Company had its own army. The British Empire hired about 30,000 Hessians from Germany to fight the American Independence movement. In India, from the Bunts of Karnataka to the Purbiyas of Bihar, hired soldiers were a common feature of local kingdoms during the medieval period. Thousands of European and African mercenaries too, came here during the 16th and 17th centuries to fight for local rulers. One of the earliest accounts is by Vasco Da Gama, who wrote about Italian mercenaries on the Malabar coast during his journey in 1498.
The Ukraine War has attracted many former soldiers to fight; some of them out of a sense of duty. Their predecessors were The Flying Tigers, American ex-fighter pilots who attacked Japanese occupiers in China in 1940-41 even before the declaration of war. The pogrom in the African wars was the reason why the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions banned mercenaries. But the definition of a mercenary is so vague that companies like Wagner can act without fear of reprisal.
with Anika Mohla