French Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Senegalese Macky Sall shared their concerns on Friday in Paris about the actions of the Russian private military company Wagner in Mali, and in particular about its “crimes” against “certain communities” such as the Fulani, according to the Elysée.
During an interview at the Elysée, the French president insisted on the need to maintain “pressure” on the ruling junta in Bamako. Because “the more time passes, the more she eliminates her opponents and the more she settles in the relative comfort that goes with the protection that Wagner brings her”, explained the presidency.
MM. Macron and Sall, who currently chairs the African Union (AU), were “very converging” on the fact that “Wagner is the praetorian guard of a regime whose primary objective is to protect itself”, she said. added.
And they “shared their concerns about Wagner’s way of doing things, and in particular the crimes he is committing” against “certain communities” such as the Fulani, “at the risk that terrorist groups capitalize on this violence” , continued the Elysée. “Wagner must leave” Mali, according to the presidency.
The Malian army and the Russian paramilitaries have been accused in particular of having carried out a massacre of civilians in the locality of Moura where, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch, some 300 civilians were executed at the end of March.
In February, France, which has very difficult relations with the junta, announced that it was reducing its military presence in Mali after a nearly 10-year-long operation to fight the jihadists.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Paris of having a “colonial mentality” towards Mali and claimed that Wagner was present in this country on a “commercial basis”.