EU has announced additional sanctions against the Wagner Group
The European Union has announced additional sanctions against the Russian-backed Wagner Group for violating human rights in several African countries, reports the BBC. The mercenary organization had already been sanctioned by the EU in 2021.
The European Council said it had drawn up a list of eight individuals and seven entities with links to the paramilitary group in the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali. Eleven people - 9 in Africa and 2 in Ukraine - and seven entities linked to the group have been added to the EU bloc's list of asset freezes and travel bans. The Wagner group itself - which is actively fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine - has already been included in 2021 by the EU on the sanctioned list. These new sanctions were decided "taking into account the international dimension and the seriousness of this group's activities, as well as its destabilizing impact on the countries where it is active," the European Council wrote in a statement. "The activities of the Wagner group are a threat to the populations of the countries where it operates and to the European Union," said the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell. Wagner, a paramilitary group founded in 2014, is considered by the US as an international terrorist organization. The US, which has been trying to counter Russian influence in Africa for several years, accuses the Wagner group of "violations of human rights and the exploitation of natural resources in Africa". The group has established itself as a major player in the conflict in Ukraine, and its mercenaries have also been seen in Syria or Libya.
