U.S. Says Russia's Wagner Group Helped Push U.N. Forces Out of Mali

The White House has alleged that Russia's private military company Wagner Group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, played a role in securing the departure of the decade-long presence of United Nations forces in the West African nation of Mali.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, as the U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to end the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), National Security Council Strategic Communications Director John Kirby recalled how the government of Mali, led by Interim President Assimi Goïta since a May 2021 military coup, withdrew its consent for the mission this month and demanded its immediate departure.

"What isn't as widely known," Kirby said, "is that Prigozhin helped engineer that departure to further Wagner's interests. In fact, we know that senior Malian officials worked directly with Prigozhin's employees to inform the U.N. secretary-general that Mali had revoked consent from the MINUSMA mission."

Kirby hailed MINUSMA's work, saying the U.N. Peacekeeping force was dedicated to "protecting civilians, facilitating economic development and advancing Molly's transition to democracy." He warned its termination "will only make worse economic hardship in the country and contribute to broader internal and regional instability while moving only further away from the goal of the successful democratic transition."

Pointing to last weekend's attempted armed munity by Prigozhin and a number of Wagner Group personnel against the Russian Defense Ministry, along with U.S. intelligence allegations that the organization had earlier plotted to overthrow the government in Chad, Kirby said that the outfit and its leader "are unpredictable and can hardly be considered a reliable security partner."

Protests have emerged in several countries over the past year in support of Moscow and against international deployments, including those of U.N. Peacekeepers and France, which has already withdrawn troops from Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic and Mali. But Russian officials have rejected the notion that the state-funded Wagner Group has played any role in expelling the presence of foreign troops in African nations.

Speaking at a press briefing Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Wagner Group "have not been deliberately pushing anyone out" of African countries.

Echoing earlier remarks by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said the Wagner Group's work "will continue" in the Central African Republic and Mali, Zakharova said it was France that had "abandoned and betrayed" the two countries in the collapse of their security partnerships.

Responding to Newsweek's question about the Wagner Group's future in Africa, Zakharova said it "is up to the sovereign African governments to decide" as "their leadership, political leaders contacted specialists, experts and instructors, they signed contracts with them and they invited them to their territory."

The previous day, as reports emerged of a French U.N. Security Council draft resolution to oversee the exit of MINUSMA from Mali, a U.N. Peacekeeping spokesperson told Newsweek that discussions were underway to plan for the withdrawal of the 13,000-strong force from about 60 nations.

"The Secretariat has begun internal discussions and planning for an orderly exit, identifying the multiple aspects and layers of such a massive and complex endeavor, while also simultaneously engaging Member States in this regard," the spokesperson said at the time. "Securing the constructive cooperation of the Malian authorities will be essential to facilitate the process."

Despite years of international support, Mali remains beset by major political instability and active insurgencies, including largely Tuareg-led separatist movements in the north and jihadi groups, some of which are associated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

Amid frustration with the results of Western and U.N. assistance, pro-Russia sentiment has been on the rise in countries such as Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Niger.

But U.S. officials have continued to disparage the role of Moscow and the Wagner Group, accusing it of a wide array of abuses from human rights abuses to the smuggling of natural resources. President Joe Biden's administration has issued a growing list of sanctions against entities and individuals allegedly associated with the group in Africa and elsewhere in the world.

During his press briefing Friday, Kirby alleged that the Malian government had paid the Wagner Group up to $200 million since securing its services in late 2021.

And while Russian President Vladimir Putin, who this week revealed that the Wagner Group had received up to $1 billion in state funds over the past year, gave those who took part in the abortive rebellion last weekend the choice to either join Russian military or security services, retire home or relocate to Belarus, U.S. officials saw no immediate plans to draw down the organization's activities in Africa.

"We have no indication that Wagner is decreasing its intent to exploit African countries despite the events of last weekend," Kirby said.