The United States assures that “hundreds” of Wagner’s Russian mercenaries are already deployed in Mali

The head of the United States Military Command in Africa (AFRICOM), General Stephen Townsend, assured today that “several hundred” of mercenaries from the Russian private company Wagner -supposedly linked to the Kremlin- ​​are already deployed in Mali.

“We have observed that the Malian (military) junta has (…) Russian mercenaries in the country,” Townsend said in a telephone press conference called by the US embassy in Nairobi.

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“They were invited, they continue to deny it in public, but my information is quite clear that they have brought Wagner. I believe they have several hundred (mercenaries) on the ground expanding to an unknown number.”stressed the general.

The military junta Maliarising from the two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, denies that there are mercenaries from that company in its territory to fight against jihadist terrorism and maintains that what there are are Russian military trainers based on the official cooperation between the two countries.

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However, the US general emphasized that “Wagner is not the same as an organized uniformed military force, they are mercenaries, so their mission is not the same, they are there for their own personal interest.”

“It is not the Russian Army that we are talking about,” he insisted, “these are mercenaries.”

“The government account of Mali for the services of Wagner It’s ten million dollars a month. I do not know where the Government of Mali gets ten million dollars a month”added the head of AFRICOM.

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Townsend pointed out that he has seen the Russian company operate in countries such as Syria, Sudan, the Central African Republic or Mozambique “and they never leave the situation better than they found it”, but rather “they are going to leave it much worse, they are also going to exploit the country to a great extent.

“They are a bad presence and they are not going to contribute to the stability or security of Mali”asserted the general, noting that “this group does not respond to any government and does not follow rules, does not operate within the law of armed conflict and is not under supervision, so they invent their own rules wherever they go in the world.”

Washington provides military support to Malian troops and international forces fighting jihadism in that Sahelian country, a region in which -according to the head of AFRICOM- “security continues to deteriorate” due to the push of the Islamic Support Group and the Muslims (known as JNIM by its acronym in Arabic), an “arm of Al Qaeda” in the area, and militias loyal to the Islamic State (IS).

Townsend made these comments as France prepares, together with its partners in the European Union and West Africa, the departure of French and European troops fighting Islamist terrorism in Mali, which will be accompanied by a profound transformation of that mission in the region.

Paris has made this decision in the face of the growing intransigence of the Malian military junta, which has opened the door to Wagner’s Russian mercenaries and in the last week has expelled the Danish military contingent from the Takuba Force (led by France under the EU flag). ) and the French ambassador.

Mali, a very unstable country and one of the most important fronts of jihadist terrorism in the Sahel, currently hosts several international forces.

At the press conference, Townsend admitted that these missions have achieved “tactical victories,” but “military forces alone cannot defeat violent extremism,” whose root lies in a lack of “good governance.”

“At AFRICOM -he added- we say that we like to use a three-dimensional approach: diplomacy, development and defense efforts”.

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Source: Elcomercio

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