Foreign Affairs committee  Not matter whether it's in countries in Africa or on any other continent, it's standard practice for the government to suspend direct aid as soon as the first coup d'état occurs. No monies are paid directly to the government. I can assure you that, for 100% of our current development programs, the funds are distributed through Canadian civil society or recognized international humanitarian aid partners, namely the World Food Programme and UNICEF.

Foreign Affairs committee  To respond specifically to that question, I would say that the government launched consultations on the Canada-Africa economic cooperation strategy approximately 10 days ago. The strategy was among the objectives set by the Prime Minister in the mandate letter for Minister Ng, which her department is implementing.

Foreign Affairs committee  No.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, but we have three ministers and, obviously, some other components are.... We incorporated the development pillar and the political pillar. The development pillar, for example, is going to be—

Foreign Affairs committee  Of course. To my knowledge, we've documented a single case, that of AXMIN, which is not co-operating with the Wagner Group and whose mining licence was confiscated by the Central African government. In Mali, we aren't aware of any instances of collaboration with the Canadian private sector.

Foreign Affairs committee  The Wagner Group does indeed have a presence in the Central African Republic, as well as in Mali. I'd say that the group's business model—if I can call it that—changes, depending on the country. What Ms. Larouche said about the Central African Republic is true. In 2019, the Central African government confiscated a mining concession from AXMIN, a publicly traded Canadian mining company, and handed it over to the Wagner Group.

Foreign Affairs committee  In Mali, the government is the result of a military coup that took place in 2020. When the coup d'état occurred, we expressed our concerns publicly. When we received the initial confirmation that the Wagner Group was in Mali, we published a statement with 15 allied countries expressing our very serious concerns with respect to that presence.