The Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary conglomerate that rents out its combat-experienced operators to shady governments around the world, has recently made itself indispensable to regimes in Africa. But the mercenaries aren’t merely a guns-for-hire bunch. In Africa, they’re perfecting a new form of international operation—a corporate blend of military aggression and private-sector business—that spells trouble for the world economic order.

The group is perhaps best known for its killings in Ukraine, where it’s been stationed since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. There are some 1,000 mercenaries in eastern Ukraine today, most of whom are former Russian and Belarusian special-forces soldiers. Though much is unknown about the company’s legal status and ownership, what is clear is that it cooperates closely with the Kremlin. Soon after the company made its debut nearly a decade ago, Wagner troops were fighting on Bashar al-Assad’s side in Syria, and then on Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s side in Libya—both in support of Russian interests.