UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States on Tuesday accused Kremlin-backed Russian military contractors of interfering in the internal affairs of African countries and “increasing the likelihood of the growth of violent extremism” in the Sahel region, which it faces increasing attacks and deteriorating security, a charge Russia has denied.
US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills lashed out at the Wagner Group at a UN Security Council meeting on West Africa and the Sahel, accusing its paramilitary forces of failing to address the extremist threat, dispossessing countries resources, commit human rights abuses and endanger the safety and security of peacekeepers and United Nations personnel.
France’s political adviser Isis Jaraud-Darnault echoed Mills, saying that “the model” used by Wagner’s mercenaries has proven to be “totally ineffective in the fight against terrorism.” She cited the devastating and “dire” impact of his work and human rights violations, including the alleged murder of more than 30 civilians in Mali and the looting of natural resources.
Britain’s deputy UN ambassador James Kariuki cited deteriorating security, especially in Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and the Lake Chad basin, and fears that instability could spread to coastal countries in Africa. Western. “The destabilizing role that the Wagner Group plays in the region cannot be ignored. They are part of the problem, not the solution,” he told the council.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Anna Evstigneeva, rejected attempts to “stain Russian assistance to Mali,” where Moscow has a bilateral agreement to help the transitional government, “and in other countries in Africa.”
“Some countries once again declared today that Russia is apparently plundering and plundering Africa’s resources and facilitating the growth of the terrorist threat,” he said, accusing those unnamed nations of doing the same “all over the world and in Africa. ”, especially in neighboring Libya which destabilized the entire area.
“The accusations against Russia are simply staggering, given common sense,” and undermine African leaders trying to solve their own problems and decide who they want to cooperate with, he said.
Evstigneeva never mentioned the name of the Wagner Group. The group is led by a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and its mercenaries are accused by Western countries and UN experts of numerous human rights abuses across Africa, including in the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
Giovanie Biha, deputy director of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel, told the council that “insecurity has deteriorated again in much of the region,” due to the 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 education, nearly 7,000 health centers have closed.
Armed groups are fighting for supremacy and control of resources, he said, and the central Sahel faces “unprecedented levels of security and humanitarian challenges, sociopolitical instability, further exacerbated by the impact of climate change, and food insecurity.” which was exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine”. He added that increasing attacks on countries along the Gulf of Guinea threaten transportation arteries to landlocked countries further north.
According to the latest report by Secretary General Antonio Guterres published 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. And around 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 growing number of terrorist threats in the region, the ongoing inter-ethnic and inter-community conflict, organized crime, drug trafficking and the killing of large numbers of civilians by fighters in the second half of 2022.
He pointed to the withdrawal of French anti-terror forces and the Takuba European military task force under his command on June 30, saying it was not agreed with Mali’s transitional government and is having “a negative impact” on the security situation. short term. finished.
“However,” he said, “there is already some progress” and Russia is providing Mali with “adequate assistance”.
Mills, the US deputy ambassador, said the US is deeply concerned about the security, humanitarian and political crisis in the Sahel that is causing “a dramatic increase in the force and influence of violent extremism.”
The problem requires “a democratic governance solution,” he said. “We are also gravely concerned about democratic backsliding in the region and urge the return of democratically elected, civilian-led governments.”
The latest wave of West African coups began in Mali in 2020, followed by another in Guinea in 2021, and then Burkina Faso in January 2022.
Omar Alieu Touray, chair of the ECOWAS West Africa regional group commission, told the council he was pleased to report that transitions to critical elections in the three countries are “ongoing”, with voting taking place in the next two years.
