French minister of defence, Florence Parly, arrived on Sunday in Niger, in a two days visit to Sahel France allies. There, French military operations against Islamist groups are threatened by Mali's negotiations for hiring Russian mercenaries.
Indeed, Malian military junta is about to hire a Russian private military company named Wagner, and France has launched a diplomatic campaign in order to counteract the project. In the flow, West African States Economic Community (CEDEAO, 15 states) expressed its concern about this perspective.
Though, Mali military junta maintains its intention and stressed that France has already begun to diminish its military engagement against Al Qaeda and Islamic State associated insurgents.
Few days before, France announced the killing of the Islamic State in Western Sahara chief, Adnan Abu Walid Al Sahrawi. Although, Paris has stated that negotiating with current Malian military junta is harder than doing it with precedent civilian governments.
French Foreign Ministry reminded that Florence Parly would address her Sahel interlocutors about French plans re-configuration of military operations in the region and warn about consequences if Mali employs Warner mercenaries services. Additionally, she will stress for the junta the importance of next February elections, as they have promised.
France intends ending its Sahel military engagement re-configuration until next February and plans to diminish its 5.000 contingent to 2.500-3.000 soldiers, mostly in Niger, concurrently with its encouragement towards Special European Forces to engage themselves along with local African authorities. At present, European Forces in Sahel have about 600 soldiers from nine countries.
Mali intends to hire Russian mercenaries
