After more than three and a half years on the ground, Russia’s Wagner mercenary group declares its intention to leave Mali.
The paramilitary force claimed on Friday that it had successfully carried out its operation in West Africa against armed groups.
The group claimed in a post on its Telegram channel that it had forced rebel forces to oust their leaders and had retaken control of all of the country’s regional centers, forcing all of their leaders to be killed and put under control of the Malian military regime.
However, Wagner’s decision to leave Mali leaves the country without Russian combatants. Russia Corps, a separate Kremlin-backed paramilitary organization founded after Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin failed a mutiny against the Russian military in June 2023, will continue to operate under its purview.
In a statement released by Africa Corps in reference to Mali’s capital city, it stated that “Russia does not lose ground, but rather, continues to support Bamako at a more fundamental level.”
According to Nicolas Haque, a journalist from neighboring Senegal, “Russian security advisers are stepping in where the mercenaries are stepping out.”
The focus may shift away from “fighting jihadists,” according to Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, as opposed to “the Russian military engagement in Mali will continue.”
JNIM fighters claim a deadly attack on an army base.
More than 100 Malian soldiers and some mercenaries are said to have been killed in recent weeks by rebel fighters as a result of the shift in the Russian presence in Mali.
The violence included one attack on Sunday that left at least 30 soldiers dead at central Mali’s Boulkessi army base, which was carried out by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an armed group in the Sahel.
Local officials told Reuters that the base has since been abandoned by the military.
According to Haque, the Tuareg rebels supported by Ukraine are responsible for some of the country’s mercenary attacks.
The Ukrainians are supporting Tuareg rebels fighting Russian mercenaries in the heart of Africa, according to Haque.
Source: Aljazeera
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