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Russia’s international minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, was scheduled to reach in Mali on Monday, making his third journey to Africa in about six months as Russia seeks to increase its affect and preserve help amongst non-Western nations for its invasion of Ukraine.
Mr. Lavrov’s two-day go to to the West African nation is aimed toward strengthening protection and safety ties, the Malian International Ministry mentioned in a press release. Russia has already provided Mali with navy plane together with helicopters, in addition to a whole lot of navy advisers and operatives, lots of whom Western officers say belong to the Wagner mercenary group.
Earlier than touring to Mali, Mr. Lavrov visited Iraq on Sunday. He’s scheduled to journey subsequent to Mauritania and Sudan, based on the Russian information company Tass.
Russia, Africa’s largest arms vendor, has longstanding ties to nations on the continent, lots of which have supported President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The connection with Mali is only one of a number of navy alliances that the Kremlin has strengthened in recent times, a mutually helpful technique that has made Russia a well-liked safety accomplice for a lot of African nations.
Final month, Mr. Lavrov visited South Africa, days after the federal government there introduced that it could maintain joint navy workouts with Russia and China in February.
Russia offered about 45 p.c of main arms to Africa between 2012 and 2021, based on a research by the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute. Lately, a rising variety of nations have established contracts with Russian mercenary teams, together with Wagner, whose fighters are energetic within the struggle in Ukraine. In most African nations the place they’ve deployed, Wagner operatives have been accused of widespread abuses, together with killings of civilians, sexual violence and torture.
In Mali, United Nations consultants have mentioned that Wagner mercenaries might have dedicated struggle crimes and crimes towards humanity together with the nation’s navy. On Sunday, Mali’s authorities mentioned it was expelling the top of the human rights division of the U.N. peacekeeping operation stationed within the nation.
Since a 2020 navy coup in Mali, the junta in Bamako has drawn nearer to Russia. On the similar time, its relationship has soured with France, its former colonial ruler, which ended a nine-year navy operation in Mali final 12 months as anti-French sentiment rose. The navy junta in neighboring Burkina Faso additionally has vowed to strengthen ties with Russia, whereas ordering France to tug out troops stationed within the nation.
For the Malian authorities, the go to additionally gives a present of international help amid tensions with Western nations, and a few West African neighbors, over the coup and its use of mercenaries.
“The presence of the Russian international minister is a chance for the Malian authorities who want a strong ally on the worldwide stage,” the day by day Le Pays newspaper wrote on its entrance web page.
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