Stop using African natural resources to finance your war in Ukraine: US accuses Russia

LONDON, (GO) - Vladimir Putin’s government has been accused of using its mercenaries to exploit African natural resources to fund the war in Ukraine. This is according to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

Linda told Reuters that the Wagner Group of mercenaries is exploiting natural resources in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Sudan to help fund Moscow's war in Ukraine.

"Make no mistake: people across Africa are paying a heavy price for the Wagner Group's exploitative practices and human rights violations," Linda told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the financing of armed groups through illicit trafficking of natural resources in Africa.

Russia has, however, rubbished the claim as ‘anti-Russian rage,’ which is being spread by the US government to win the heart of African nations to side with them.

Linda added that “ We all know that all these ill-gotten gains are used to fund Moscow's war machine in Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine."

The Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, while responding to the accusations, said he regretted that Thomas-Greenfield raised the issue of "Russian support to African partners." Nebenzia "This exposes their real plans and aims - what they need from African countries."

Wagner Group mainly comprises Russian armed forces and has fought in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic, Mali, and other countries.

The group was formed in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and started supporting pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February, Putin’s administration has been internationally criticized, especially by the West.

The West has accused China and Russia of targeting Africa’s natural resources for their gains.

Next week, the 193-member General Assembly is due to vote on whether to condemn Moscow's move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine after staging what it called referendums.

GAROWE ONLINE