Mauritania rules out allying with the Wagner Group to contain jihadist violence

March 2 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazuani, has for now ruled out the possibility of using the Russian group of Wagner mercenaries to help the country’s security forces combat violence and jihadist terrorism, as other countries have been doing. in the region, such as Mali.

“We are a sovereign country and we will continue to be so”, the Mauritanian president has settled the issue in this way in statements to the BBC. At the same time, care has been taken to assess the decisions that its neighbors in the region have taken in this regard. “We hope that these collaborations will be effective and that if the objectives are achieved, it will be done respecting Human Rights”, he confided.

This week, a group of United Nations experts has called for an independent investigation into alleged Human Rights abuses and possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Mali by mercenaries from the Wagner Group.

The military junta that rules Mali in the wake of the August 2020 coup has since distanced itself from France, a traditional partner, and has moved closer to Russia through the Wagner Group, amid protests from the West.

Mauritania and Mali, as well as the rest of the Sahel, have experienced an upsurge in violence, both jihadist at the hands of groups linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, and of an inter-communal nature, which has led France and the G5 Sahel countries – -which the Malian junta abandoned in 2022– to increase its operations.