Mali’s ruling military junta wants to ask the private Wagner group to intervene by Russian paramilitaries. “People who stand out for their violations of humanitarian law”, explains the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The presence of mercenaries from the Wagner company in Mali “would be incompatible with the international and European presence”, warned Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Thursday, 16 September about the information on France. He is pointing out that “for the moment” the Malian authorities “I didn’t sign anything” with this private company.
“If by chance Colonel Goïta, Mali’s interim president, intended to recruit the Wagner company, this is obviously incompatible with the international presence in Mali. It is up to him to assume his responsibilities.”, insists Jean-Yves le Drian who is therefore in the same position as the Germans.
The Wagner group, “they are Russian mercenaries, a private militia that intervenes in different countries”. They intervened in particular in Syria and Ukraine, and “they are very active in the Central African Republic”. According to the French minister, “They are people who are distinguished by their abuses, by violations of humanitarian law, by predations because they use themselves” especially in mining resources. “Contrary to what they say, they reinforce the instability of the countries concerned”, judge the head of French diplomacy.
What to make of the attitude of the Russian oligarch, owner of the Wagner Foundation, who recently asked the French media to call for investigations into police violence in France, according to Le Monde revelations? Yevgeny Prigojine “used us to interventions like this, we call him Putin’s cook”, replies Jean-Yves Le Drian. “We can see what Wagner is doing in Africa, we can clearly see the methods used which are perfectly reprehensible, and that requires great vigilance on our part and great intransigence”, adds the French minister.
