Burkina Faso has recalled its ambassador in Ghana for consultations after President Nana Akufo-Addo accused the neighbouring country of inviting mercenaries from the Russian firm Wagner.
Ghana’s ambassador to Burkina Faso has also been summoned for a meeting on Friday morning at the foreign affairs ministry, the BBC reported citing the Burkinabè state information agency as its source.
President Akufo-Addo during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the side-lines of the US-Africa summit in Washington on Tuesday claimed the Russian mercenaries are stationed close to Ghana’s northern border.
He described the development as distressing.
“Burkina Faso has now entered into an arrangement to go along with Mali in employing the Wagner forces there. I believe a mine in southern Burkina has been allocated to them as a form of payment for their services. Prime minister of Burkina Faso in the last 10 days has been in Moscow. And to have them operating on our northern border is particularly distressing for us in Ghana,” President Akufo-Addo claimed.
The possibility of Burkina Faso using the Wagner group to fight jihadists in the country has been the subject of debate for several months and prompted warnings from Western powers.
But there has not yet been an official confirmation about an agreement between the group and Burkina Faso, even though Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyelem recently visited Russia.
How was the Wagner Group started?
A BBC investigation into the Wagner Group highlighted the believed involvement of a 51-year-old former Russian army officer, Dmitri Utkin. He is thought to have founded Wagner and given it its name – his own former call-sign.
He is a veteran of the Chechen wars, a former special forces officer and a lieutenant colonel with the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service.
The Wagner Group first went into action during Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Some suggest Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, secretly funds and oversees the Wagner Group.
Mercenary sources have told the BBC that its training base in Mol’kino in southern Russia is next to a Russian army base.
Russia has consistently denied that Wagner has any connection with the state.