The military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have written letters to the UN Security Council denouncing what they believe is Ukraine’s support for rebel groups in West Africa’s Sahel region, the Malian Foreign Ministry said.
Mali broke off diplomatic relations with Ukraine in early August after Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, spoke about fighting in northern Mali in late July that killed Malian soldiers and mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group. Niger’s military government followed suit a few days later in solidarity with its neighbor.
Yussov had stated that the Malian “rebels” had received the necessary information “to carry out a successful military operation”.
Mali and Niger interpreted Yusov’s statements as an admission of Ukraine’s direct involvement in the conflict and accused the country of supporting international terrorism.
Ukraine has repeatedly called the allegations baseless and untrue. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. More than two years after Moscow’s invasion, the country is still embroiled in heavy fighting with Russia.
An alliance of Tuareg rebels also declared that they were not receiving any support from Ukraine.
Both ethnic Tuareg separatists and jihadist insurgents are active in northern Mali. The Tuareg said they killed at least 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers in days of heavy fighting in July.
An al-Qaeda offshoot also claimed to have killed 50 Wagner mercenaries and ten Malian soldiers in an ambush on one of these days.
In their letter to the Security Council, the foreign ministers of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso called on it to take “responsibility” for Ukraine’s actions and to prevent “subversive acts” that threaten stability in the region and on the continent.
The text of the letter was posted on the Malian Foreign Ministry’s social media account. Diplomats said it was forwarded to the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday evening.
Since their juntas came to power over the past four years, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have turned their backs on their traditional Western and regional allies and turned instead to Russia.
The July attacks, which took place in the Kidal region of northern Mali near the border with Algeria, may be Wagner’s worst defeat since the organization helped the junta fight jihadist insurgents two years ago.
The ethnic Tuareg are a distinct group living in the Sahara region, which includes parts of northern Mali. Tuareg-led separatists launched an insurgency in 2012 that was pushed back into the arid north of Mali and later hijacked by militant Islamist groups.
