Ekip
15 September 2021•Update: 15 September 2021
KIGALI, Rwanda
France’s defense minister warned Mali on Tuesday against hiring Russian private security firm Wagner, French media said, after reports indicated that the West African country’s military government is close to sealing a deal for 1,000 mercenaries.
Appearing before a parliamentary commission, Florence Parly said if Malian authorities entered into a contract with Wagner, “it would be extremely worrying and contradictory.”
“It is incoherent with everything that we have done for years and we intend to do to support the countries of the Sahel region,” she said, according to French news agency AFP.
Her remarks came days after Reuters reported that the Wagner Group would be paid about 6 billion CFA francs ($10.8 million) a month for its services.
However, a spokesperson for the Malian Defense Ministry said that while the government is yet to sign a deal with Wagner, he did not deny the discussions going on, according to the report.
In 2013, France sent troops to Mali after unrest broke out in the north of the country.
But relations between the two deteriorated following a coup in August 2020 which toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
France suspended military cooperation with Mali in June, and French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that he will close bases in northern Mali and draw down the presence of French troops in the Sahel region.
The growing influence of Russian paramilitary companies and advisers has been witnessed in the Central African Republic, to the dismay of France.
Forces from Wagner are also reportedly present in Libya, Sudan and Mozambique.
Mali has been battling an insurgency linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh/ISIS since 2012, when unrest started in the north of the country.
