2023-07-01 12:10:00
The United States said on Friday it was concerned about the destabilizing activities of Russia’s Wagner Group in Africa and accused the leader of the mercenary force of helping to engineer the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Mali.
The US has intelligence indicating Mali’s transitional government has paid more than $200 million to the Wagner Group since the end of 2021, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Kirby said Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a mutiny against the Kremlin last weekend that ended up being aborted, helped engineer the departure of the UN peacekeeping mission, known as MINUSMA, to “promote the interests of the Wagner Group”.
“We are aware that Malian officials worked directly with Prigozhin officials to inform the UN Secretary General that Mali had revoked consent to the MINUSMA mission,” Kirby said.
The UN Security Council voted on Friday to end the mission. Earlier this month, Mali asked the UN mission to withdraw “without delay”, citing a decade-long “crisis of confidence” between local officials and the UN mission.
Both Russia and Mali say the Russian soldiers on the ground are not mercenaries but are helping to train local troops to fight a decade-long insurgency by Islamist militants.
By Steve Holland, Daphne Psaledakis and Doina Chiacu in Washington and Bate Felix in Dakar
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