AS FRANCE QUITS MALI THE US STEPS IN On her mission to the Sahel on 16-20 October Washington's Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland worked hard to discourage regional states from closer ties with Russia and instead offering stronger United States support to push back a wave of jihadist attacks...

On her stopover in Mali Nuland met Prime Minister Lieutenant Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga and three officers in key regime roles: Malick Diaw head of the National Transition Council; reconciliation minister Ismaël Wagué; and defence minister Sadio Camara seen as a link to Bamako's military partnership with Russia...

Vowing US support for Mali's transition and the 2015 Algiers Accord Nuland pressed the government to lift restrictions on Minusma's freedom of movement...

On her return to Washington DC Nuland warned that the US's capacity to help Mali fight the jihadists 'is greatly constrained now… by the choice that the Mali government made to get into bed with Wagner...

After meeting Burkina's new leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré in Ouagadougou Nuland said she was convinced by his insistence that the new junta there had no intention of hiring Wagner fighters to help on security...

Nuland added that she had discussed with Traoré how the US could 'continue to support strong efforts by the Burkinabè military to push back terrorism without outside support from Russia and Wagner...

US State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland explained the US abstention: ‘We think the compromise might have been stronger...