OUAGADOUGOU: The commander of French anti-extremist force Barkhane, General Laurent Michon, on Thursday accused 鈥渕ercenaries鈥� from Russian group Wagner of 鈥減reying鈥� on Mali.

French-Malian relations started to nosedive after a military coup ousted Mali鈥檚 elected president in August 2020.

The junta snubbed French appeals for an early return to civilian rule and then turned to Russian military operatives 鈥� 鈥渕ercenaries鈥� from the pro-Kremlin Wagner group, in France鈥檚 view 鈥� to help its anti-extremist fight.

Michon spoke as French forces finalize a withdrawal from Mali, bringing out military equipment via neighboring Niger.

鈥淭he mining code in Mali has changed and now... a certain number of measures have been taken to exploit three gold sites for Wagner,鈥� he alleged.

鈥淚t鈥檚 called preying, plain and simple.鈥�

The French general accused the group of acting like a drug 鈥渄ealer,鈥� 鈥済iving Mali a first dose for free: protection against the nasty French鈥� and quick fixes, before looking out for its own interests.

鈥淚n central Mali, they took 200 people prisoner, who were all executed soon afterwards,鈥� he said, criticizing one such 鈥渞apid result by mercenaries.鈥�

But Michon said France鈥檚 withdrawal from the Sahel country had nothing to do with 鈥淲agner鈥檚 arrival in Mali.鈥�

It was rather due to Bamako expressing its wish to 鈥渟ee us leave without delay,鈥� he said.

After leaving Mali, Barkhane would offer help only to countries requesting it 鈥� 鈥渙n-demand support, adapted with flexibility to suit the intentions of such or such country.鈥�

Once France鈥檚 pullout from Mali is done, only 2,500 French troops are to remain in the Sahel region.
Instead of acting in the place of local forces, French soldiers are to take on more of a supporting role, and the host country will take the lead, they say.

A 2019 report by International Crisis Group estimated that up to 700,000 people worked in small-scale gold mining in Mali, producing 20 to 50 tons of the precious metal per year.