Niger joins Mali in severing diplomatic ties with Ukraine

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Niger became the second west African country in a week to cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine amid an escalating row over whether Kyiv provided support for rebels behind an attack last month that killed scores of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group.

Niger’s military junta said late on Tuesday that it would follow its neighbour Mali with “immediate effect” by severing relations with Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of supporting “terrorist” groups.

Mali broke ties with Ukraine over the weekend after reports in the eastern European country that Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, admitted that Kyiv gave support to rebel Tuaregs who claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on the Mali-Algeria border.

“The rebels received all the necessary information they needed,” Yusov was quoted as saying in the Ukrainian press.

Niger government spokesperson Amadou Abdramane said in a televised statement that the country’s ruling junta had severed relations with Ukraine “with immediate effect . . . in total solidarity with the government and people of Mali”.

Niger had learned “with great amazement and deep indignation, the subversive and unacceptable remarks of Mr Andriy Yusov”, he continued.

However, Yusov told the Financial Times this week that he had made “no such statement” about Ukraine’s GUR being involved in the attack.

Ukraine’s foreign affairs ministry also called Mali’s decision to sever ties “short-sighted and hasty” and denied that its country played any role in the Tuareg rebel attack. The ministry did not immediately comment on Niger’s decision to sever ties on Wednesday.

The breakdown of diplomatic relations is a symbolic defeat for Ukraine, which has sought to gain support in Africa as it battles Russia’s full-scale invasion. Many African countries have been neutral in the war, or like Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have backed Russia’s position. Ukraine had launched a charm offensive in the hopes of bringing more African countries to its side.

The diplomatic row, which comes during Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba’s three-country tour in Africa, threatened to overshadow Kyiv’s efforts to expand ties in the global south and secure broader support for its fight against Russia’s ongoing military invasion. 

Kuleba is this week visiting Malawi, Zambia and Mauritius, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement. 

A rebel Tuareg coalition called the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 47 Malian soldiers and 84 Russian mercenaries near the remote town of Tinzaouaten.

It was the most significant setback for the Wagner forces, who are fighting alongside the Malian army as the country struggles to contain a decade-old insurgency fuelled by Isis and al-Qaeda affiliates as well as the Tuaregs agitating for greater independence.

Al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin has also claimed responsibility for the attack. CSP-PSD and JNIM have a fractious relationship, sometimes collaborating and other times clashing, but they have a common enemy in the Malian state and its Russian supporters.

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are all run by military regimes that swept to power over recent years with promises to tackle the spiralling insecurity that largely democratic administrations were unable to quell.

All three countries have also pulled out of the Economic Community of West African States, which they see as a western stooge and have formed the tri-state confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States.

The military regimes have sought closer relations with Moscow and have shunned traditional western allies including the US and former colonial ruler France. French forces have been kicked out of all three nations and the US completed its troop withdrawal from Niger this week.