Mercenaries from the Russian company Wagner have reportedly been invited into neighbouring Burkina Faso, according to Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo.
He described the development as distressing while speaking with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about it.
This occurs at a time when Ghana and other coastal nations in West Africa are growing more concerned about the spread of jihadist violence from the Sahel.
Russian mercenaries, according to President Akufo-Addo, were on Ghana’s northern border.
He said he understood that the Wagner group had been offered a mine in southern Burkina Faso as a form of payment for services – presumably fighting Islamist militants.
In a video of the meeting with the US secretary of state, Mr Akufo-Addo describes the development as particularly worrying seeing as Ghana strongly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He spoke of the dangerous proliferation of coups in West Africa adding that there were enemies of democracy working hard in the region.
It was a call for people to focus on what Ghana sees as the combined threats of jihadist violence, coups and Russian interference.