BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to draw up more sanctions on shadowy Russian mercenary group Wagner over its involvement in a string of hotspots, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said.
The private military outfit, which Western capitals see as closely linked to the Kremlin, has been tied to conflicts in Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East.
“There is consensus to move forward in order to take restrictive measures against this group,” Josep Borrell said after a meeting in Brussels.
He said the sanction proposals will now be drafted by European Union experts and discussed further when foreign ministers meet again in December.
EU member France has been spearheading the moves to target Wagner.
Paris fiercely opposes a reported deal between the group and Mali’s military junta to send 1,000 contractors to the jihadist-hit country.
Already last year, the EU blacklisted Wagner’s alleged financier Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, over the group’s involvement in Libya.
The Kremlin denies it has ties to the mercenary firm.
In addition to targeting Wagner, France also pushed EU counterparts to move forward on sanctioning Mali’s military leadership in the wake of their coup.
Borrell said foreign ministers agreed to set up a legal framework that would allow Brussels to target those blocking a transition back to civilian rule.
The move comes after West African regional group ECOWAS this month slapped individual members of the military junta ruling Mali since the August 2020 seizure of power.
EU eyes more sanctions on Russian mercenaries Wagner
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EU eyes more sanctions on Russian mercenaries Wagner
- "There is consensus to move forward in order to take restrictive measures against this group," Josep Borrell said
- EU member France has been spearheading the moves to target Wagner
Two family members of Mexico’s education secretary killed in shooting
MEXICO CITY: Authorities in the western Mexican state of Colima said they killed three people suspected in the shooting deaths of two family members of Mexico’s secretary of education on Saturday.
Colima, located on Mexico’s Pacific coast, is one of the country’s most violent states. It recorded the highest homicide rate in Mexico in 2023 and 2024, according to the US State Department.
The local prosecutor’s office said officers killed three suspects in the 4:30 am (1030 GMT) shooting of two women, whom Mexico’s Secretary of Public Education Mario Delgado later identified as his aunt and cousin.
They did not identify a motive in the shooting or say whether they were searching for other suspects.
“Deep shock, outrage, and sorrow over the events that occurred this morning in Colima, where my aunt Eugenia Delgado and my cousin Sheila were brutally murdered in their home,” Delgado wrote on X on Saturday.
Officials tracked the suspects’ vehicle to a Colima home on Saturday afternoon and killed three people in a gunfight, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Investigators found weapons and clothing in the suspects’ home linked to the double shooting.
Delgado was appointed education secretary by President Claudia Sheinbaum in 2024. He previously served as national president of the ruling Morena party.
