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The French foreign minister warned his Russian counterpart against the involvement of paramilitaries from the controversial Wagner group in the conflict in Mali.
“On Mali, the minister alerted his Russian counterpart to the serious consequences of the involvement of the Wagner group in this country,” the French foreign ministry said on Friday.
Jean-Yves Le Drian met Sergey Lavrov on Thursday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
According to reports, the army-dominated Malian government in Bamako is about to hire 1,000 Wagner paramilitaries.
France has warned Mali that hiring fighters from the Russian private security company will isolate the country internationally.
The Russian company is seen as close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Western countries accuse it of acting on behalf of Moscow.
Russian paramilitaries, private security instructors and businesses have become increasingly influential in Africa in recent years, particularly in the conflict-ridden Central African Republic, where the United Nations has accused Wagner’s contractors of committing crimes. abuse.
France, which has thousands of troops stationed in the war-torn country, has pledged a major troop withdrawal from the Sahel region.
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