Over the past seven years, reports have trickled out of war zones and fragile countries around the world about shadowy groups of mercenaries operating under the rubric of the Russian private military contractor Wagner.

A report by a United Nations panel of experts released late last month accused Russian instructors to the Central African Republic armed forces of indiscriminate killings, looting, and enforced disappearances conducted alongside the Central African military. While the report to the U.N. Security Council does not identify those instructors as Wagner affiliates, news reports and the U.N.’s working group on mercenaries have.