FRENCH Defence Minister Florence Parly warned Mali against signing a deal with a Russian security firm today claiming it would undermine efforts to fight extremism in the region.

Her rebuke came as the African nation closed in on a deal with contractors Wagner which are believed to be supplying some 1,000 private soldiers to hep deal with Mali’s deteriorating security situation.

“If the Malian authorities entered into a contract with Wagner, it would be extremely worrying and contradictory, incoherent with everything that we have done for years and we intend to do to support the countries of the Sahel region,” she told a French parliamentary commission.