Another country in West Africa had a different agreement with the security company, the ECOWAS commissioner stated.
In the event that the Wagner Group, an Eastern European country’s private military contractor, breaches human rights during the Niger coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has threatened to hold Russia accountable.
In a live interview with Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, mentioned that a different West African country had a different arrangement with the security company.
Today, presumably, The Wagner Group is in Mali. This is supposedly a deal between the Malian and Russian governments, according to the Malian administration,” Musah stated.
“We want to take them at their word, so if there is any violation of human rights or destruction in our region caused by these private military contractors, we will hold the other countries in our region accountable for that,” the speaker said.
Upon being asked if he meant Russia, the ECOWAS representative emphasised, “That’s Russia — (we will hold them) responsible, diplomatically. Russia is simply not the West African region.
Private military enterprises, according to Musah, have long been a part of the war landscape in Africa.
In Sierra Leone, there were private military companies present. Long ago, during those terrible conflicts in Liberia, they were involved. “Private military companies have been used in recent times in international conflicts as well,” he stated.
In addition to using them in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Americans also use other methods. Even though these organisations are present in Africa, we are going to hold their countries of origin accountable for any transgressions because that is what we are seeing: these groups are not accepted there.
The ECOWAS commissioner also emphasised the current presence of Western forces in Niger, including France and the European Union (EU), and added that there had also been an influx of Middle Eastern countries, including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, as well as countries from Russia and China.
“What we’re saying is that we won’t allow West Africa to serve as a theatre for proxy conflicts once more. We approach Wagner in that way. We are unable to do it, he declared.
“We know the repercussions of private military companies’ action, so we do not want them interfering in the environment of conflict in the region.”
