EU Ends Training Programme for Malian Troops, Blames Russians for Moura Killings

"We are halting the training missions for the [Malian] armed forces and national guard", the European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, told reporters on Monday. "There were not sufficient guarantees on non-interference by the Wagner group".

The training programme had been paused in mid-March over fears that the private military contractor (PMC) was operating in the country and responsible or could become responsible for civilian deaths in the war-torn West African nation. Those claims continued through late March after unconfirmed anonymous reports claimed that Russians were among a group of Malian troops accused of massacring as many as 300 people in the town of Moura.

Bamako has opened an investigation into the incident, but Paris proposed that the United Nations Security Council open its own parallel probe. Russia and China vetoed the idea, saying it was "premature" while the Malian probe was incomplete.

France has raised fears about the Wagner PMC or Russia penning a deal with the Malian government ever since it decided last year to end Operation Barkhane, including its cooperation with the Malian government, and pull its troops out of Mali. However, Moscow has denied there is any agreement between Wagner or the Kremlin and the Malian government. It has also denied accusations that Wagner PMC is a foreign policy tool for the Russian government, asserting that it's a private company that hasn't broken Russian law.

The former colonial ruler of Mali, France's latest military deployment to Mali began in 2013 after Tuareg rebels seized large parts of the country amid the chaos of a military coup by US-trained soldiers. The EU training mission also began at that time. In the nine years since, however, French troops have waged a war on terror-style campaign against Islamist rebels across Africa's Sahel region that, much like the US "War on Terror", was replete with attacks on civilians and failed to meaningfully suppress the operations of terrorist groups.

In February, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French troops were totally pulling out of Mali, but not leaving the Sahel region, where they are engaged in a smaller-scope counterterrorism operation dubbed Task Force Takuba. On Monday, Borrell said much the same, telling reporters that "the Sahel remains a priority. We're not giving up on the Sahel, far from it. We want to commit even more to that region".

A similar situation erupted in another former French colony, the Central African Republic, in June 2021, when France became enraged at Bangui's growing closeness with Russia and the increased effectiveness of CAR troops who received Russian training as compared to those who drilled with EU or French training programmes.

The Malian government is still facing off against al-Qaeda*-aligned rebels in the north, but in the wake of the French pullout feel that they finally have a chance to roll back the rebel groups' gains. Malian Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga has accused Paris of instituting a "de facto partition" of the country and claimed that rather than fight the rebel groups, French forces created safe zones where they could regroup.

However, the Malian government also faces a deep internal struggle. The present government is a military junta that seized power in May 2021 when now-Interim President Assimi Goita removed several civilian ministers from power, including the prime minister and president. That government was already an interim government consisting of a tense alliance between the military and June 5 Movement - Gathering of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP), an umbrella of civilian activist groups who led mass protests against the previous government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, resulting in his downfall in August 2020.

*A terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries