DAKAR, October 26 (Reuters) – Ibrahim Traore, Burkina Faso’s new transitional president since the September 30 coup, has assured U.S. diplomats he has no intention of asking Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group to come and fight the jihadists in his country, declared on Wednesday the American Under-Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.
“We had the opportunity to meet interim President Traoré and his leadership team, including his Minister of Defence. He said unequivocally that only the Burkinabe will defend their country. They do not intend to invite Wagner,” said the American diplomat during a briefing with journalists after returning from a tour of West Africa.
The possibility that the new Burkinabè authorities will follow in the footsteps of the ruling junta in Mali, which invited Wagner’s paramilitaries last year, worries Western chancelleries.
Since Wagner has been operating in Mali, said Victoria Nuland, Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the security situation has worsened in the country, human rights violations are reported there and the stabilization mission of the United Nations (Minusma) is pushed towards the exit. (Report Nellie Peyton, French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse, edited by Tangi Salaün)
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