Lavrov says EU foreign policy head told him to STAY OUT of ‘our’ Africa, as he denies Moscow’s role in mercenaries invited to Mali

 

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 With the terrorist-fighting government of Mali in talks with a private Russian military firm, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Russia’s FM Sergey Lavrov to bluntly stay out of Africa, allegedly calling it “our place.”

The modern EU bureaucracy may seem light years away from the rapacious colonial powers of olden Europe, but geopolitics seemingly still reigns in Brussels, with the fight this time over influence in the troubled West African nation of Mali. With Mali’s military-ruled government struggling to quell a wave of jihadism, and France on the cusp of withdrawing its forces from the region, the country is now reportedly looking to hire as many as 1,000 private mercenaries from the controversial Russian Wagner Group to bolster its own forces.

The deal led to a wave of condemnation from the West, with officials in the US and Europe viewing it as an effort by Moscow to muscle into African affairs. “We continue to be concerned about the rise… of malign influences on the continent,” an American official said on Friday....