Advertisment

Burkina Faso's Mine Minister Has Denied Contract with Wagner Missionaries

author-image
BNN Correspondents
New Update
Burkina Faso's Mine Minister Has Denied Contract with Wagner Missionaries

The president of Ghana claimed that Burkina Faso had paid Russian mercenaries by granting them access to a mine, but the country's minister of mines refuted the claim on Tuesday.

Advertisment

When he claimed last week that Burkina Faso had engaged mercenaries from the Russian Wagner organization to assist it in fighting Islamist extremists, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo sparked a scandal.

Speaking to reporters with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Akufo-Addo stated, "I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been awarded to them as a sort of recompense for their services."

Although the Burkinabe government called the Ghanaian ambassador for a meeting on Friday to clarify the president's comments, it has not either verified or refuted the claim that it has reached a deal with Wagner.

Advertisment

"We have not awarded any permit to a Russian business in southern Burkina," mines minister Simon Pierre Boussim told reporters following a meeting with civil society groups worried about the accusations.

"We compiled a list of all the exploitation or research licences for significant industrial mines in the south, so they can see for themselves that there is no secret location," he explained.

According to Boussim, the Burkinabe government recently granted a fresh exploration permission to Russian firm Nordgold for a gold mine in Yimiougou, in the centre-north area, but the company has been engaged in Burkina Faso for more than a decade.

Mali, a neighbor of Burkina Faso, contracted Wagner last year to aid in its war against rebels. Western nations like France and the United States are concerned about the group's potential expansion into Africa because they claim it violates human rights and exploits natural resources in the nations where it operates.

Advertisment
Advertisment