The United States (US) envoy to the United Nations (UN) on Thursday accused the Russia-backed mercenary group Wagner of exploiting natural resources in African countries to help fund Moscow’s wars in Ukraine, reported The Anadolu Agency.
‘One of the most immediate and growing concerns in Africa is the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group’s strategy of exploiting the natural resources of the Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan as well as other countries,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US envoy, told the UN Security Council.
She added that the gains from the exploitation of natural resources are being used to fund Moscow’s war machine in Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine.
Wagner Group, deemed as a Russian private military company, has reportedly operated in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic and several other African countries.
The US envoy said African people are paying a heavy price for the Wagner Group’s exploitative practices and human rights violations.
She called on the 15-member Security Council to investigate the matter and go after those who exploit natural resources and fund armed conflicts and terrorism.
Russia denies any links to Wagner. The group has been active in Libya since 2016, where it supported General Khalifa Haftar’s forces in fight against the government troops.
Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia denied the claims by his US counterpart and accused Washington of “anti-Russian rage”.
“I would like to recall here, by the way, that in Syria, the US, under the cover of counter-terrorism, was stealing Syrian oil,” Mr Nebenzia said.
According to the UN Development Programme, Africa is home to about 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, 8 per cent of the world’s natural gas and 12 per cent of the world’s oil reserves. It also has the world’s largest deposits of cobalt, diamonds, platinum and uranium.
