Oct. 7 () –
The United States has accused Wagner Group mercenaries, owned by a Russian businessman linked to the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, of “exploiting natural resources” in Africa to finance Russia’s “war machine” in Ukraine and other countries around the world.
“One of the most immediate and growing concerns in Africa is the strategy of the Wagner Group, backed by the Kremlin, to exploit natural resources in the Central African Republic (CAR), Mali and Sudan, as well as other countries”, said the permanent representative of United States to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
“These actions are documented in detail and irrefutable and we know that these illegally obtained assets are used to finance Moscow’s war machine in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine,” he said during a meeting of the Security Council of the UN on the financing of armed groups through the illicit trafficking of natural resources.
Thus, Thomas-Greenfield has stressed that “instead of being a transparent partner and improving security, the Wagner Group exploits client states that pay for their heavy-handed security services with gold, diamonds, wood and other natural resources” . “It’s part of the Wagner Group business model,” she said.
“Let there be no doubt. The population of Africa is paying a high price for the practices of exploitation and the violations of Human Rights by the Wagner Group”, he pointed out, before asking “to act against those who exploit natural resources and finance armed conflict and terrorism”.
“We have to deal with that power effectively and urgently,” said Thomas-Greenfield, who stressed that the organization’s anti-terrorist committees and other UN agencies “have an essential role to play.”
The United States government warned the Burkina Faso military junta on Tuesday about the “destabilizing impact” of the Wagner Group after the new coup last week in the African country, which has suffered for years from a serious deterioration in the situation of security.
“The countries in which the group has been deployed are weakened and less secure, which we have seen in several cases in Africa,” said US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel, referring to the presence of Russian mercenaries in Mali, Libya and CAR, among other places.
