The United States has accused Kremlin-backed Russian military contractors of interfering in the internal affairs of African countries and ...
The United States has accused Kremlin-backed Russian
military contractors of interfering in the internal affairs of African
countries and “increasing the likelihood that violent extremism will grow” in
the Sahel region, which is facing increasing attacks, an allegation Russia
denied.
US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills lashed out at the Wagner
Group at a UN Security Council meeting on West Africa and the Sahel on Tuesday.
He accused the paramilitary force of failing to address the
threat of armed groups, robbing countries of their resources, committing human
rights abuses and endangering the safety and security of UN peacekeepers and
staff.
France’s political counsellor, Isis Jaraud-Darnault, echoed
Mills, saying the “model” used by Wagner mercenaries has proven “totally
ineffective in combating terrorism”.
She cited the “nefarious” and devastating impact of their
work and human rights violations, including the alleged killing of more than 30
civilians in Mali, and its pillaging of natural resources.
Britain’s Deputy Ambassador James Kariuki cited the
deterioration of security in Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and the Lake Chad
Basin, and the fear of instability spreading to West African coastal countries.
“You cannot ignore the destabilising role the Wagner Group plays in the region.
They are part of the problem, not the solution,” he told the council.
Russia’s Deputy Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva rejected what
she called attempts “to besmirch Russian assistance to Mali”, where Moscow has
a bilateral agreement to assist the transitional government, “and in other
countries in Africa”.
“Some countries once again today declared that Russia
apparently is pillaging and looting the resources of Africa and is facilitating
the growth of the terrorist threat,” she said, accusing those unnamed nations
of doing the same thing “throughout the world and in Africa”, especially in
neighbouring Libya, which destabilised the entire area.
“Accusations against Russia are just astonishing, given
common sense,” and undermine African leaders trying to resolve their own
problems and decide who they want to cooperate with, she said.
Evstigneeva never mentioned the Wagner Group by name. The
group is run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir
Putin, and its mercenaries are accused by Western countries and UN experts of
numerous human rights abuses throughout Africa, including in the Central
African Republic, Libya and Mali.
Giovanie Biha, the deputy head of the UN Office for West
Africa and the Sahel, told the council that “insecurity has again deteriorated
in large parts of the region”, due to activities of armed groups, “violent extremists”
and criminal networks.
As a result, she said, more than 10,000 schools across the
Sahel have closed, leaving millions of children without an education. Nearly
7,000 health centres have also shut down.
Armed groups are fighting for supremacy and control of
resources, she said, and the central Sahel is facing “unprecedented levels of
security and humanitarian challenges; socio-political instability, further
compounded by the impact of climate change; and food insecurity which was
exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine”.
She added that increasing attacks in countries along the
Gulf of Guinea are threatening transport arteries to landlocked countries
further north.
According to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ latest
report issued this week, more than 18.6 million people in the region are
experiencing “severe food insecurity” – an increase of 5.6 million since the
end of June 2022 – with Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria being the hardest-hit.
About 6.3 million people are displaced across the Sahel, an increase of 300,000
since June.
Russia’s Evstigneeva said Moscow shares concerns about the
increasing number of threats in the region, ongoing inter-ethnic and
inter-communal conflict, organised crime, drug trafficking and the killing of a
large number of civilians by fighters in the second half of 2022.
She pointed to the withdrawal of French counterterrorism
forces and the Takuba European military task force under their command on June
30, saying it wasn’t agreed on with Mali’s transitional government and is
having “a negative impact” on the security situation in the short-term.
“Nonetheless,” she said, “there is already some progress”
and Russia is providing Mali with “appropriate assistance”.
Mills, the US deputy ambassador, said the US is deeply
concerned about the security, humanitarian and political crisis in the Sahel
causing “a dramatic increase in the strength and influence of violent
extremism”.
The problem requires “a democratic governance solution”, he
said. “We are also gravely concerned about democratic backsliding across the
region and urge the return of democratically elected, civilian-led
governments.”
West Africa’s latest wave of coups kicked off in Mali in
2020, followed by another in Guinea in 2021, and then in Burkina Faso in
January 2022.
Omar Alieu Touray, president of the West African regional
group ECOWAS’ commission, told the council he was pleased to report that
transitions to critical elections in the three countries are “on course”, with
voting to take place in the next two years.
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