{"id":18418,"date":"2022-03-17T19:44:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T19:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2022\/03\/17\/africom-commander-warned-mali-about-the-wagner-group-it-didnt-work\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:44:14","slug":"africom-commander-warned-mali-about-the-wagner-group-it-didnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2022\/03\/17\/africom-commander-warned-mali-about-the-wagner-group-it-didnt-work\/","title":{"rendered":"AFRICOM\u2019s chief warned Mali about the Wagner Group. It didn\u2019t work."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2015 America\u2019s top commander for Africa said Thursday he personally urged Mali\u2019s ruling military junta not to invite in Russian mercenaries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2019\/04\/04\/why-this-us-general-says-russian-wagner-mercenaries-in-africa-concern-me-greatly\/\" target=\"_blank\">the Wagner Group<\/a> before it did just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The West African country\u2019s transitional government has <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/europe-africa-russia-france-paris-0ef013b90dea858f9c94b1a78400b8d1\" target=\"_blank\">reportedly<\/a> allowed in as many as 1,000 mercenaries from the Russian private contractor since December, highlighting competing efforts by Russia and the U.S. to wield influence in the region. The private military company has been <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/news\/press-releases\/sm1058\" target=\"_blank\">linked by the U.S. government<\/a> to a former Russian intelligence officer with deep Kremlin connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mali had been the center of western counterterror efforts, and instability in the Sahel is expected to rise as France ends its nine-year troop presence there. France maintains 4,300 troops in West Africa and is repositioning troops that had been in Mali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/01\/17\/smith-thornberry-join-congressional-pushback-on-espers-africa-troop-drawdown-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Africa Command<\/a>, said Mali\u2019s transitional government invited Wagner because it thought it would do a better job than the French against violent extremist groups plaguing the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I learned of this, I traveled to Mali and I met with the president there \u2015 the junta president there, and I explained that I thought it was a bad idea to invite Wagner in because we\u2019ve seen them in Syria and other places in Africa,\u201d Townsend said of his meeting with the junta\u2019s leader, Col. Assimi Goita.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWagner obeys no rules. They won\u2019t follow the direction of the government,\u201d Townsend continued. \u201cThey won\u2019t partner more effectively. I think they will only bring in bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Townsend, the president said he was dealing only with Russia\u2019s defense ministry. That conflicts with Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s statement last month that the state has nothing to do with Russian military contractors in Mali, Townsend noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wagner Group, which is establishing its base camps, may make some initial gains, but it\u2019s already suffered some casualties at the hands of violent extremist groups there, Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMercenaries from the Kremlin\u2019s Wagner Group offer their services for profit: regime protection resource exploitation, and horrific violence against Africans such as we see in Ukraine today,\u201d Townsend said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">United Nations experts last year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/africa\/20211028-un-experts-urge-car-to-cut-ties-with-russia-s-wagner-group-over-grave-accusations-of-rights-abuses\" target=\"_blank\">urged<\/a> the Central African Republic to cut ties with Wagner, accusing the private security force of violent harassment, intimidation and sexual abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a sign of Russia\u2019s potential influence on the African continent, a U.N. resolution this month to condemn the invasion of Ukraine saw just 28 of the 54 African countries \u2015 or roughly half \u2015 vote in favor of the resolution, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/blog\/order-from-chaos\/2022\/02\/08\/russias-wagner-group-in-africa-influence-commercial-concessions-rights-violations-and-counterinsurgency-failure\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brookings<\/a> noted in a recent report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the Mideast and Africa, there are fears that war between two of the globe\u2019s main producers of grain will create food insecurity and then instability. Townsend and U.S. Central Command\u2019s Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said they expect Ethiopia, Egypt and Jordan to need added humanitarian aid as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amid the war, McKenzie said he hasn\u2019t seen much movement of fighters from Syria, where there are thousands of Wagner Group mercenaries. Earlier this month, Putin approved bringing volunteer fighters from the Mideast to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wagner Group tried to enlist some of its units in Africa to fight in Europe, Townsend told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/voa-exclusive-efforts-being-made-to-recruit-wagner-mercenaries-for-ukraine-africom-commander-says\/6489376.html\" target=\"_blank\">Voice of America<\/a> this week. Townsend<b> <\/b>said those units would likely transfer primarily from Libya, where hundreds of Russian mercenaries are supporting eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>America\u2019s top commander for Africa said Thursday he personally urged Mali\u2019s ruling military junta not to invite in Russian mercenaries the Wagner Group before it did just that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"}}},"categories":[8,160,11,47,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3446],"class_list":["post-18418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-mideast-africa","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"FY22RTZMWRD27L5YOWD7JQWXYY","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2022\/03\/17\/africom-commander-warned-mali-about-the-wagner-group-it-didnt-work\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AFRICOM\u2019s chief warned Mali about the Wagner Group. It didn\u2019t work. - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"America\u2019s top commander for Africa said Thursday he personally urged Mali\u2019s ruling military junta not to invite in Russian mercenaries the Wagner Group before it did just that.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFRICOM\u2019s chief warned Mali about the Wagner Group. It didn\u2019t work.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"America\u2019s top commander for Africa said Thursday he personally urged Mali\u2019s ruling military junta not to invite in Russian mercenaries the Wagner Group before it did just that.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2022\/03\/17\/africom-commander-warned-mali-about-the-wagner-group-it-didnt-work\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Defense News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-17T19:44:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T21:44:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joe Gould\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joe Gould\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t            \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/congress\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/17\\\/africom-commander-warned-mali-about-the-wagner-group-it-didnt-work\\\/#article\",\n\t            \"isPartOf\": {\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/congress\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/17\\\/africom-commander-warned-mali-about-the-wagner-group-it-didnt-work\\\/\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"author\": {\n\t                \"name\": \"migration\",\n\t                \"@id\": \"https:\\\/\\\/one.sightlinemg.com\\\/defensenews\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cc76c831bb37a926738c8391fca7a3b1\"\n\t            },\n\t            \"headline\": \"AFRICOM\u2019s chief warned Mali about the Wagner Group. 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