According to various reports, members of Russia’s notorious Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) have been transported to Mali to render assistance to the local interim government (Rosbalt.ru, September 27). Given the presence of Russian mercenaries in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa (Ifri.org, September 11, 2020), this news alarmed the Western community, particularly France. Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s minister for Europe and foreign affairs, warned his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that Russia would face “serious consequences” if Wagner were deployed to Mali (Interfax.ru, September 24). On his part, Lavrov, speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, claimed it was the government of Mali that turned to a “Russian Private Military Company” while simultaneously blaming France for its failure to fulfill its peace-building regional commitments (Interfax.ru, September 25). In the meantime, local authorities denied reports about Russian mercenaries’ presence in the country, calling them “disinformation.” The official representative of France’s General Staff also noted that the French troops deployed in the Sahel G5 region “did not locate any traces of the Wagner Group in Mali” (Rosbalt.ru, October 8). Irrespective, Russia and Mali are clearly expanding their military-technical cooperation: on October 1, the first batch of Russian helicopters, along with arms and weaponry, were sent to Mali (Ria.ru, October 1).
Russian Mercenaries’ Potential Advent to Mali (Sergey Sukhankin, The Jamestown Foundation)
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