Following recent reports and claims that the army in Mali assaulted civilians in supposed recent clashes with terrorists, particularly at Moura, a village in central Mali, the European Union says it will stop part of its training of Mali’s armed forces.

EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell made the disclosure on Monday, citing a lack of guarantees from Malian authorities that Russian military contractors would not interfere in the work.

Recall that the United Nations countered the claim revealed in a statement by the Mali military issued in which the army said it “neutralized 300 terrorists” in Moura village. The UN believed 300 civilians were killed in the village.

The US State Department had also condemned the “extremely disturbing accounts” of Mali’s military activities in Moura village. The US also stressed that it is concerned that many reports suggest that the perpetrators were unaccountable forces mercenaries from the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group.

Borrell said in a news conference after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, “we have decided to suspend, to stop, certain formations of our training mission in Mali focused on the units of the armed forces of the Malian national guard,”

While the United Nations Security Council had call for an independent investigation of the killing in Moura, africanewswatch.com reported on Sunday Russia and China disagreed with the request.

The EU on its own side has however made the decision on the case with the explanation that it was not convinced the army did not use mercenaries in the claimed neutralization of the terrorists in Moura.

Although Borell said the EU was not leaving Mali, he however said “there are not enough security guarantees from the Malian authorities over the non-interference of the well-known Wagner Group.”

The Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organization variously described as a private military company, a network of mercenaries, or a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mali has been a point of concern for the international community lately with Goïta’s continued stay in power. Recall that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ramped up sanctions on Mali after Goïta took over the government in August 2020. Mediators for the regional bloc had also been to Bamako in recent weeks to broker peace and transition into civil government.