Global Courant
Washington, DC — The United States has imposed sanctions on the Malian defense minister and two military officials, accusing the trio of helping facilitate the rise of the Russian mercenary group Wagner in the West African country.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Monday that the sanctions targeted Malian Defense Minister Colonel Sadio Camara, Air Force Chief of Staff Colonel Alou Boi Diarra, and Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Adama Bagayoko.
Blinken accused the trio of working to “facilitate and expand Wagner’s presence in Mali since December 2021,” adding that civilian casualties had risen 278 percent since the Russian mercenaries were deployed in the country.
“Many of those deaths were the result of operations conducted by the Malian armed forces together with members of the Wagner Group,” Blinken said.
In a separate statement, US Treasury Department official Brian Nelson also said that Malian officials “have played a significant role in facilitating the entrenchment of the Wagner Group in Mali over the past two years.”
“These officials have made their people vulnerable to the Wagner Group’s destabilizing activities and human rights violations, while paving the way for the exploitation of their country’s sovereign resources for the benefit of the Wagner Group’s operations in Ukraine,” Nelson said.
For years, the US and its allies have targeted the Wagner Group and those who support it with sanctions. Last week, for example, the United Kingdom sanctioned 13 individuals associated with the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan.
That pressure increased in the aftermath of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which Wagner’s mercenaries played a major role. In January, Washington labeled Wagner a “transnational criminal organization.”
More recently, in May, the US also imposed sanctions on Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov, whom the Treasury Department identified as Wagner’s “chief administrator” in Mali.
US officials have long accused the company founded by Russian citizen Yevgeny Prigozhin of promoting Russian interests through security deals and disinformation campaigns across Africa.
It remains unclear what effect a recent uprising led by Prigozhin in Russia will have on Wagner’s operations in Africa.
Malian officials increasingly turned to Wagner after a military-led coup in May 2021 saw military officer Assimi Goita seize power.
We are imposing sanctions on three Malian officials who coordinated with the Wagner Group to facilitate and expand Wagner’s presence in Mali. Civilian casualties have more than tripled since the December 2021 deployment of Wagner forces in Mali.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) July 24, 2023
The pivot coincided with increasing calls for French troops, first deployed to northern Mali in 2013 in response to a separatist movement, to leave the country. The French army completed its withdrawal in August last year.
Mali’s transitional government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters news agency on Monday’s US sanctions.
Increasing violence
In addition to its sanctions, Washington has accused Wagner of contributing to the departure of the 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission in Mali known as MINUSMA.
In June, at Bamako’s request, the UN Security Council voted to end the decade-long mission, which had become increasingly the subject of tension but was seen as essential to avoiding a total security vacuum in Mali’s vast central region, bordering Niger and Burkina Faso.
MINUSMA is expected to completely cease operations by the end of the year.
The tripoint has seen increased violence in recent years as ISIL (ISIS) and Al Qaeda-affiliated groups have competed for influence and rights groups have accused Wagner of being linked to recent abuses.
In January, UN experts called for an investigation into “gross human rights violations and possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Mali by government forces” and Wagner mercenaries since 2021.
Reported abuses include the killing of more than 500 people, “the vast majority summarily executed,” by government forces and “foreign military personnel” in the village of Moura in the central Mopti region in March 2022, according to a May report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Reports obtained by The Guardian newspaper had previously linked the operation to Wagner, although Malian officials dismissed the report as “fictitious”.
On Monday, Human Rights Watch accused government troops and fighters believed to belong to the Wagner Group of summarily executing or forcibly disappearing “several dozen civilians in Mali’s central region since December 2022”.
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