MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Units of Russia’s Wagner private military company are "patrolling the jungle" in various African countries, eliminating terrorists, the company’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has said.

"I am certainly involved on the continent," he said in an interview to English-language news portal defenceWeb. "We are in Africa to protect those who ask us for help. To protect African civilians, to protect their national interests from terrorists and bandits, some of whom are not even of African origin at all. This is done solely from the funds that I earn as a businessman."

He dismissed claims of civilians deaths caused by Wagner staffers in the Central African Republic and Mali as "one hundred percent fake."

"This is being done by the French and the Americans, who are failing to destroy militants and terrorists globally, because they are lazy and quite frankly, useless. They’re used to sitting in their bases, just guarding themselves while we are actually patrolling the jungle destroying terrorists," Prigozhin said.