An uncertain future looms for the Wagner Group after the leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's death.
The 62-year-old was one of ten people killed in a plane crash north of Moscow, on a private plane en route to Saint Petersburg.
Russian authorities say its commander and co-founder Dmitry Utkin was also among the casualties.
Australian National University defence expert Matthew Sussex it leaves a big void for Russia to fill in its African allies.
"Russia's gone on a kind of spree of constructing new private military companies, and it may well be that one of the existing ones will now step into the breach that Wagner's left."
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