Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger complain about Ukraine to UN Security Council
The juntas of the African countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have written a letter to the UN Security Council condemning Ukraine's support for rebel groups in the Sahel region of West Africa.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Voice of America.
In their letter to the Security Council, the foreign ministers of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso ask the UN to "take responsibility" for Ukraine's actions and prevent "subversive actions" that threaten stability in the region and on the continent.
A copy of the letter was published on 20 August on the X network on the page of a group called the Alliance of Sahelian States, which was created last month by the junta's of these countries, and they pledged to support each other against external threats.
"In a letter addressed to the President of the UN Security Council, the foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger strongly condemned the Ukrainian government's overt and covert support for terrorist groups operating in the Sahel. They call on the Security Council to take action to end this support, which threatens stability in the region," the Alliance of Sahelian States' page on the X network reads.
The diplomats said that the letter was sent to 15 members of the UN Security Council.
As a reminder, the scandal between Ukraine and the juntas of three African countries erupted in late July, when a group of African rebels operating in northern Mali claimed to have destroyed a convoy of mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group and Malian soldiers near the border with Algeria. The Tuareg rebels then reported that they had killed at least 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers during several days of fierce fighting, potentially the heaviest defeat for Wagner in the last two years, when Wagner began helping the Malian junta fight rebel groups. They also published a photo with rebels holding the Ukrainian flag.
Afterwards, the representative of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Andrii Yusov, said on Ukrainian television that "the rebels received the necessary information and not only the information that allowed them to conduct a successful military operation against Russian war criminals, the whole world saw it. We are not going to talk about the details at the moment, it will continue." The Malian authorities believe that this statement indicates that Ukraine's representative Yusov "admitted Kyiv's involvement" in the rebel operation.
On 5 August, the government of Mali announced that it was breaking off diplomatic relations with Ukraine because of Kyiv's support for the Tuareg tribes. In a communiqué, the government stated that Ukraine supports "terrorism in Africa", violates the sovereignty of their country, shows "aggression against Mali", and "violates international law, including the UN Charter". On 6 August, Niger also announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine, in solidarity with the neighbouring country.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry responded that the accusations against Kyiv "are groundless and untrue".
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have turned away from Western and regional allies in favour of Russia after their military juntas came to power over the past four years. In July this year, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso created their own bloc, the Alliance of Sahel States, after leaving the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
