“The Russians are always the ones in charge. They give the orders.”

On this week’s episode of Notes from the World, we speak to Philip Obaji Jr, a Nigerian journalist who currently serves as correspondent for The Daily Beast covering sub-Saharan Africa. In recent years, his work has focused on the activities in the region of the Russian state-funded private military company the Wagner Group and its successor, the Africa Corps, whose abuses against civilian populations and links to the governments of the Central African Republic, Mali and elsewhere we discuss in detail during our conversation. In 2022, he was awarded  the Jaime Brunet International Human Rights Prize and the following year he was the recipient of the One World Media International Journalist of the Year award, becoming the first Nigerian to receive both honors.