MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia would continue to help Mali improve its military capabilities, a partnership that worries Western countries.
Sergei Lavrov was speaking as part of a two-day visit to the West African country, which is engaged in a fight against fighters linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, who have been carrying out a decade-long insurrection that has spread to neighboring countries.
Western governments are concerned about the involvement in Mali of mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which is also fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.
Last week, UN experts called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since 2021 in Mali by government forces and the Wagner group.
Mali, whose government took power in a military coup in 2021, had said Russian forces in the country were not mercenaries but trainers who had come to help local troops learn how to handle weapons. equipment purchased from Russia.
Sergei Lavrov, quoted by the Russian news agency RIA, also said that Moscow hoped to start delivering wheat, fertilizers and petroleum products to Mali soon.
The Russian foreign minister has visited a series of African countries, as Moscow, hit by Western sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, seeks to develop trade ties and strike strategic partnerships elsewhere.
(Reuters reporting, writing by Mark Trevelyan; French version Lina Golovnya, editing by Kate Entringer)
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