PARIS (Reuters) – Around 300,400 Russian mercenaries are deployed in central Mali, an official with the French arms minister said, rejecting claims by the ruling Bamako military junta that only Russian military instructors are present. .
The desire of the Malian military to delay the organization of elections after their 2020 coup d’état led on Sunday the member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (Cdao) to close their borders with Mali and suspend their diplomatic and trade relations with the country.
These sanctions were also decided in reaction to the arrival on Malian soil of members of the Russian private security company Wagner, made up mainly of former soldiers.
“I would say there are around 300-400 members of Wagner and there are also Russian instructors, who provide equipment,” the French manager of reporters said Monday evening.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official added that Russian mercenaries were deployed alongside the Malian army in the center of the country.
The Malian junta, which has proposed a five-year transition period in place of the transfer of power initially planned via elections next February, says these forces newly present in Mali are military instructors who came with equipment bought from Russia.
The European Union has imposed sanctions on the Wagner group, which it accuses of carrying out clandestine operations on behalf of Russia. Russian President Vladimir Poutine denies any link between this company and the Russian state but judges that private paramilitary groups can act around the world as long as they respect Russian law.
Even if it has reviewed its system in the region, France has several thousand soldiers engaged in the fight against the armed Islamists in the Sahel. With 15 other countries, mainly European countries also engaged in Mali, it condemned in December the possible arrival of mercenaries in this country of West Africa.
Paris said such a deployment would be incompatible with the French presence in Mali.
“The fact that Wagner is in a different part of Mali limits the risk of interaction which would be very difficult (for us) to accept,” said the French official. “(The junta has) made the choice to turn its back on Europeans, Americans and Africans and this has consequences.”
Consultations are underway between France and its European partners who have provided special forces to Mali, continued this official, according to which decisions will probably be taken at the end of January at the level of the European Union.
(Report John Irish, French version Bertrand Boucey, said by Blandine Hnault)
by John Irish