Washington DC - The United States has sanctioned Mali's defense minister and two officials it accused of facilitating the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which it said acts "as a proxy military force of the Kremlin."

Wagner has been seen for years as an armed extension of Moscow's influence in several African countries.

The US Treasury sanctioned defense minister Sadio Camara, air force chief of staff Alou Boi Diarra, and air force deputy chief of staff Adama Bagayoko for "facilitating the deployment and expansion" of Wagner's activities in Mali, it said in a statement Monday.

"These officials have made their people vulnerable to the Wagner Group's destabilizing activities and human rights abuses while paving the way for the exploitation of their country's sovereign resources to the benefit of the Wagner Group's operations in Ukraine," said Brian E. Nelson, the Treasury's under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

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Also on Monday, Human Rights Watch accused the Malian armed forces and "foreign" fighters believed to be from the Wagner group of "executing" dozens of civilians during anti-jihadist operations.

HRW said the abuses had been committed since late 2022 "during military operations in response to the presence of Islamist armed groups" in several towns.

In May, the UN accused the Malian army and foreign fighters – identified by the United States as Wagner – of murdering 500 people during an anti-jihadist operation, which the military junta denied.

That same month, the United States slapped sanctions on Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov, the head of Wagner in Mali.

Since taking power in 2020, the junta in Bamako has severed defense cooperation with France while forging closer ties with Russia.

Last month, the UN Security Council voted to end a decade-old peacekeeping mission in Mali, whose junta has demanded the withdrawal of international forces.

Russia has said Wagner would continue operations in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR) despite its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's aborted insurrection and subsequent exile in Belarus.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in June that Wagner members were working as "instructors" in Mali and CAR at the request of the two governments.

Last week, the UK announced sanctions against 13 individuals and businesses it said had links to Wagner in Mali, CAR, and Sudan, accusing them of crimes there including killings and torture.

They include Maslov; Vitalii Viktorovitch Perfilev, Wagner's chief in CAR; and the group's operations head there, Konstantin Aleksandrovitch Pikalov.