Burkina Faso’s interim President Ibrahim Traore has assured US diplomats that he has no intention of inviting Russian Wagner forces to fight militants in the country, US under secretary for political affairs Victoria Nuland said on Wednesday.
There has been concern that Burkina Faso might follow the lead of neighbouring Mali, which late in 2021 hired mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group to help its army fight insurgents.
Security has deteriorated since Wagner entered Mali, rights abuses have been reported and UN peacekeepers have been squeezed out, said Nuland, who had just returned to the US from a West Africa tour.
“We had a chance to sit with interim president Traore and his leadership team, including his defence minister. He was unequivocal in saying that only Burkinabe will defend their country. They have no intention of inviting Wagner,” she said at a digital media briefing.
Groups, some with links to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, have been waging an insurgency in the Sahel region south of the Sahara over the past decade, gaining ground despite the presence of foreign troops and UN peacekeepers. Worsening violence spurred soldiers last month to overthrow the government in the second coup this year.
Thousands have been killed and more than 2-million people displaced as the insurgency that took root in Mali spread to neighbouring countries and more recently to coastal nations south of the Sahel.
Frustrations over growing insecurity have spurred two military coups in Mali since August 2020 and two in Burkina Faso this year.
Both countries are under pressure to restore civilian rule and have committed to holding elections in 2024.
Nuland warned that insecurity would challenge the transition process but said “at least the civilians responsible for the election appear to be keeping the preparations on track”.
Relations between Mali and the West have soured over the junta’s reticence to hold elections and its collaboration with the Russian mercenaries, which the UN has accused of summarily executing civilians and other human rights violations alongside Malian soldiers.
Mali and Russia have repeatedly denied this.
Wagner, staffed by veterans of the Russian armed forces, has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali and other countries. It was founded in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and started supporting pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Nuland said “incidents of terror” have increased by about 30% over the past six months in Mali and Russian equipment is “malfunctioning”, she added, citing a Russian-made military aeroplane that crashed in the northern city of Gao on October 4.
“The US’s ability to help Mali on the security side is greatly constrained,” she said, noting that peacekeepers were barred from large swathes of the country’s insurgent-hit centre.
Meanwhile, at least ten soldiers were killed and about 50 wounded in a militant attack early on Monday on an army base in Djibo, northern Burkina Faso, the army said.
“Members of the regiment responded valiantly to direct and indirect fire from the enemy, who came in large numbers,” said the army statement, adding that the death toll was provisional.
It said that at least 18 of the attackers were also killed.
Air reinforcements have been deployed in the area to carry out relief and response operations, the army said.
