Lavrov says Mali asked private Russian military company for help
mali
MalihasaskedaprivateRussianmilitarycompanytohelpit fight against insurgents,Russianforeign minister SergeiLavrovsaid on Saturday at the United Nations.
Mali's year-oldmilitaryjunta is close to a deal to recruit theRussianprivatemilitarycontractors the Wagner Group, sources have told Reuters, triggering opposition from France, which has said it was "incompatible" with a continued French presence in the West African state.
"They are combating terrorism, incidentally, and they have turned to aprivatemilitarycompanyfrom Russia in connection with the fact that, as I understand, France wants to significantly draw down itsmilitarycomponent which was present there,"Lavrovsaid ofMali's junta during a news conference.
The French defence ministry declined to comment. Paris has started reshaping its 5,000-strong Barkhane mission to include more European partners and earlier this month began redeploying from bases in northernMali.
Mali'smilitaryjunta has said it will oversee a transition to democracy leading to elections in February 2022.
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Mali's Prime Minister Choguel Maiga told the UN General Assembly on Saturday that his country felt abandoned by the French move and signaled they were seeking othermilitaryhelp"to fill the gap which will certainly result from the withdrawal of Barkhane in the north of the country."
"The new situation resulting from the end of Operation Barkhane putsMalibefore a fait accompli - abandoning us, mid flight to a certain extent - and it leads us to explore pathways and means to better ensure our security autonomously, or with other partners," he said.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Friday that he toldLavrovand his counterpart fromMalithis week in New York that the potential deployment of the Wagner Group would be a "red line" for the European Union, "and it would have immediate consequences on our cooperation."
EU foreign ministers discussed the issue on Monday during a closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders for the UN General Assembly in New York.
Lavrovsaid theRussiangovernment had nothing to do with any deal between theprivatemilitarycompanyandMali.