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Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger Accuse Ukraine of Supporting ‘International Terrorism’

Wagner forces in Mali
Wagner forces in Mali
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Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger Accuse Ukraine of Supporting ‘International Terrorism’

Wagner forces in Mali
Wagner forces in Mali

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso on Wednesday accused Ukraine of supporting international terrorism.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, the three countries asked the Council to “take responsibility” for Ukraine's actions and to prevent “subversive acts” that threaten regional and continental stability.

The letter, seen by Asharq Al-Awsat, was signed by Burkina Faso’s foreign minister, Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré, Mali's foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop and Niger’s foreign minister, Bakari Yao Sangari.

The three ministers said they were sending their letter to the president of the Security Council, based on instructions from the “higher authorities” of the three countries involved in the Sahel States Alliance.

The letter, they said, comes after “Ukraine's support for terrorism in the Sahel region.”

The letter strongly condemns “Ukraine’s open and assumed support for international terrorism particularly in Africa’s Sahel region.”

It referred to comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence agency admitting Kiev's support for armed movements in northern Mali during an attack last July by Tuareg and Arab militants targeting dozens of Wagner fighters and the Malian army.

Both ethnic Tuareg separatists and insurgents operate in north Mali. The Tuareg said they had killed at least 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers over days of fierce fighting in July.

In response to the attack, the three countries have severed diplomatic relationships with Ukraine.

In their joint letter addressed to the Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, the foreign ministers called upon the Security Council to assume its responsibilities with regard to Ukraine's deliberate choice to support terrorism in Africa, particularly in Sahel region.

Diplomats said the letter was circulated to the 15-member Security Council on Tuesday evening.

In late July, Wagner group and Malian armed forces reported heavy losses after clashes with Tuareg militants in the northeastern village of Tinzawaten on the border with Algeria.

Later, Ukrainian intelligence official Andriy Yusov and Ukrainian Ambassador to Senegal Yuriy Pivovarov expressed Ukraine’s support for the attack.

Yusov had said Malian rebels had received necessary information to conduct a successful military operation.

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FBI Director Says America Faces Many Elevated Threats 'All at Once'

FBI Director Christopher Wray answers questions during an interview, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Brooklyn Center, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
FBI Director Christopher Wray answers questions during an interview, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Brooklyn Center, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
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FBI Director Says America Faces Many Elevated Threats 'All at Once'

FBI Director Christopher Wray answers questions during an interview, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Brooklyn Center, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
FBI Director Christopher Wray answers questions during an interview, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Brooklyn Center, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The country is facing heightened threats from many corners at a time when law enforcement agencies are struggling, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in an exclusive interview, adding that he is “hard pressed to think of a time in my career where so many different kinds of threats are all elevated at once.”

Wray spoke Wednesday with The Associated Press while visiting the Minneapolis field office to talk about partnerships between law enforcement agencies and also with other entities. His remarks come as the FBI confronts heightened concerns over terrorism, both domestic and international, as well as Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft and foreign election interference.

“I worry about the combination of that many threats being elevated at once, with the challenges facing the men and women in law enforcement more generally,” Wray said at the office in the suburb of Brooklyn Center. “And the one thing that I think helps bridge those two challenges is partnerships. That’s how we get through. It is by all working together.”

Wray’s assessment of an elevated threat landscape is consistent with alarm bells he has sounded for months. Soon after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel, Wray began warning that the rampage could serve as an inspiration to militants, “the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago.”

The FBI has also scrambled to deal with security concerns related to the United States' southern border, with officials revealing in June that eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to ISIS were arrested and were being held on immigration violations.

Officials are also dealing with the specter of foreign election interference. The FBI and other federal agencies announced Monday that Iran was responsible for a hack targeting the Trump campaign and for an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign, part of what officials portrayed as a brazen and aggressive effort to interfere in American politics.
Wray declined to talk about any specific investigation or threat but said investigations into cyberattacks, including against election infrastructure, candidates or campaigns, require help from the private sector.
“One of the things that we have been doubling down on with every passing day is, is on partnerships, because ultimately you’re talking about the ability to connect the dots, whether it’s against some kind of election influence threat or some other kind of threat,” Wray said. “You need to have partners sharing information with each other to put the two pieces together to see the bigger picture.”
Law enforcement officers are being killed in the line of duty at a rate of about one every five days, Wray said, noting that four first responders have died in Minnesota alone in 2024. They include a Minneapolis officer killed in May while trying to help someone, and two officers and a paramedic who died in Burnsville in February when a heavily armed man opened fire.
Such violence “breaks my heart every single time,” the director said.
The FBI has not been spared such attacks: Days after agents searched Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to recover classified documents, a gunman who called on social media for federal agents to be killed “on sight” died in a shootout after trying to get inside the FBI’s Cincinnati office.
Wray said the FBI has been working to beef up traditional partnerships with state and local law enforcement, while also creating other ones with business and academia to help counter threats against cybersecurity or intellectual property. In Minneapolis and other offices, he said, authorities are cooperating with the likes of school resource officers and mental health professionals to help at-risk teenagers in hopes of heading off future threats.
Working with industry is important for protecting innovation and artificial intelligence from foreign threats, Wray added.
“AI is in many ways the most effective tool against the bad guys' use of AI,” he said. “So, we need to work closely with industry to try to help make sure that American AI can be used to help protect American people from AI-enabled threats coming the other way.”