United Nations Headquarters, New York (CNN) Mali plans to hire private Russian mercenaries to assist with security in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Saturday. "Given the external support has been diminished from those who assumed an obligation to help eradicate terrorism there, they have turned to a private Russian military company," Lavrov said at a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York, referencing a French plan to draw down its own military presence in Mali. Russia is also contributing to Mali's defense on a state level, providing military and technical equipment, he said. Mali's Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga has argued for the country's need for a new security strategy, citing rampant terrorism and other forms of criminal violence in his address Saturday to the UN General Assembly. Mali's population is at a breaking point, he said, faced with "mass killings, villages razed and innocents cut down, in which women and their babies are often burned alive."

Source: CNN September 26, 2021 19:30 UTC