The United States has accused Russian mercenaries of exploiting natural resources in the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and elsewhere to help finance Moscow’s war in Ukraine, an accusation Russia dismissed as “anti-Russian rage.”
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the mercenary group Wagner is exploiting natural resources and “these ill-gotten gains are being used to finance Moscow’s war machine in Africa, Middle East and Ukraine”.
“Make no mistake: people across Africa are paying a heavy price for the Wagner Group’s exploitative practices and human rights violations,” Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security Council meeting. UN on the financing of armed groups through the illicit trafficking of natural resources in Africa.
Wagner, made up of veterans of the Russian armed forces, has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali and other countries. It was founded in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and began supporting pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said he regretted Thomas-Greenfield raising the issue of “Russian support for African partners”.
“This exposes their real plans and goals: what they really need from African countries,” Nebenzia said, without elaborating.
Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine came at a time of heightened rivalry between the West, China and Russia over Africa’s natural resources, trade and security ties. Some states worry about being squeezed in the middle of intense geopolitical rivalry.
Russia has sought to break its international isolation after nearly three-quarters of the General Assembly voted to reprimand Moscow and demand that it withdraw its troops within a week of its invasion of neighboring Ukraine on 24 February.
Next week, the 193-member General Assembly will vote on whether to condemn Moscow’s annexation of four partially occupied regions in Ukraine after holding what it called referendums.