Harare — The U.S. has sanctioned Mali's defense minister and two military officers, accusing them of facilitating the expansion of the Russian mercenary company Wagner in the West African country, Al Jazeera reports.
Col. Sadio Camara, the chief of staff of the air force, Col. Alou Boi Diarra, and Lt. Col. Adama Bagayoko, the deputy chief of staff, were the targets of the sanctions, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's announcement.
"Today's sanctions respond to the actions of three specific individuals and are not directed against the people of Mali. As the largest bilateral donor of development and humanitarian assistance to Mali, the United States continues to support the Malian people in their pursuit of peace, prosperity, and democracy," Blinken said.
Blinken said the group was attempting to "facilitate and expand Wagner's presence in Mali since December 2021," noting that since the Russian mercenaries arrived in the Mali, there have been a 278% increase in civilian casualties.
"Since the arrival of the Wagner Group in Mali in December 2021, the number of civilian casualties in that country have surged by 278 percent. Many of those civilian deaths were the result of operations conducted by Malian Armed Forces alongside members of the Wagner Group," read the statement.
The Malian authorities had "played a crucial role in facilitating the Wagner Group's entrenchment in Mali over the past two years," Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson added in a separate statement.
"Today's action exposes the principal Malian officials who have been instrumental in facilitating the Wagner Group's entrenchment in Mali over the past two years," Nelson said, adding: "These officials have made their people vulnerable to the Wagner Group's destabilizing activities and human rights abuses while paving the way for the exploitation of their country's sovereign resources to the benefit of the Wagner Group's operations in Ukraine."
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The Wagner Group and those who support it have been the subject of sanctions for years by the U.S. and its allies. Just recently, the United Kingdom sanctioned 13 people who had connections to the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Sudan.
This includes one it referred to be the "right-hand man" of the group's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to the British government, Wagner officials have been put to its list and are being held accountable for torture, killings in Mali and the CAR, and threats to the stability of Sudan. The sanctions come only weeks after Prigozhin's failed rebellion in Russia, which prompted concerns about Wagner's future military and economic operations in African nations such as CAR.
In January, Washington classified Wagner as a "transnational criminal organization" following Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine, in which Wagner mercenaries played a major part.
