'I need more gold': Wagner head Prigozhin's last weeks in Africa recounted

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin made a desperate dash across Africa looking for money and gold during his final weeks, according to a report.

Prigozhin travelled in private to Libya, Sudan, and the Central African Republic, where Wagner has a strong presence, in the months that followed his failed mutiny in southern Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Wagner chief is believed to have been onboard a plane that plummeted from the skies over Russia this week, killing all ten passengers onboard.

The WSJ report gave a detailed account about his movements following the June mutiny he led and which Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to avenge.

Putin was reportedly talked out of assassinating Prigozhin immediately after the rebellion by Belarus ruler Alexander Lukashenko, but oversaw the takeover of over Wagner's infrastructure inside Russia.

Prigozhin sought to prove his usefulness to Moscow by visiting Wagner's overseas military bases, particularly in Africa where there were around 5,000 Russian mercenary fighters.

During one meeting with warlord Khalifa Haftar on the tarmac of an eastern Libyan airport, he demanded $200 million for his mercenary forces' role in protecting oil fields. 

Prigozhin reportedly wore a fake beard and Libyan military outfit - made in Syria due to fears Haftar's forces were infiltrated by French and US intelligence and looking to bug his clothing.

"Everyone who saw him thought he was Salafist,” one Libyan source told WSJ. Haftar duly dispatched a private plane carrying the cash to Prigozhin.

More Russian mercenaries were deployed to the Central African Republic and Congo, in the months that followed the mutiny with Prigozhin seeking to mould an image of Wagner as powerful "anti-colonial" forces in Africa. Wagner meanwhile made a dash to extract natural resources from the continent and prop up or install autocrats.

He reportedly received Sudanese Rapid Support Forces commanders, who carried crates of gold from Darfur’s Songo mine.

"I need more gold," he told the paramilitary officers, who are engaged in a bloody civil war with the Sudanese military, according to the WSJ.

"I am going to make sure you defeat them," he also promised.

It is still not confirmed that the Wagner chief died in the plane crash, although US and other Western intelligence believe a bomb was detonated onboard the aircraft he was travelling in. Russia insists the crash was an accident.