Iran’s air defence batteries have been firing overnight in the capital Tehran to counter a fourth night of Israeli strikes. Iranian officials say Israeli attacks have killed more than 224 people, including 70 women and children.
This month, the Russian mercenary outfit Wagner Group announced its total withdrawal from Mali, claiming it had completed its mission after three and a half years of operations in the West African country.
For years, Wagner had been battling rebels and armed groups on behalf of the Malian government, as well as asserting Russia’s interests in the Sahel.
But as Wagner leaves, security advisers from the Africa Corps, a Kremlin-controlled paramilitary group, will remain in their place, ensuring a lingering presence of Russian forces.
So, what does this change mean for Mali, and is there a difference between the two Russian paramilitary groups and their mission in Africa?
Mali’s government has, for decades, been embroiled in a conflict with ethnic Tuareg separatists in the Sahara Desert, as well as fighters affiliated with ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda.
Previously, French forces assisted the Malian government, but they withdrew after a military coup in 2021. The latest round of fighting erupted in 2023 when Bamako’s military government mounted a new offensive against the rebels.
“The Malian junta invited Wagner and Russia to support them in Mali – this really stemmed from frustration with the [military] support provided by France and other Western partners,” Flore Berger, a senior analyst at the Global Initiative’s North Africa and Sahel Observatory, told Al Jazeera.
“They felt that, despite years of help, the security situation hadn’t improved, and Western countries kept pressuring them to return to civilian rule, organise elections, etc. Russia, through Wagner, on the other hand, offered support without those conditions. It was seen as a more respectful and reliable partner that wouldn’t interfere in Mali’s political choices.”
The separation from France also appeared to bolster Malian sovereignty.
“France is Mali’s former colonial overlord and there’s a tense relationship, to say the least,” International Crisis Group’s Sahel researcher Franklin Nossiter told Al Jazeera.
“Long story short, they break up, and Mali kicks out the French troops … The deployment in Mali was pretty opportunistic, upstaging the West; it was a big black eye for France.”
While Moscow maintained an active presence in Africa during the Cold War, its footprint diminished in the post-communist collapse of the 1990s as Russia dealt with its own problems. But it has been revived in recent years, as President Vladimir Putin has sought a more assertive role on the world stage.
“The original push into Africa largely came through Wagner,” said John Lechner, author of Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries And The New Era Of Private Warfare.
“Over time, as the programme became successful … the interest within the Kremlin more broadly grew, especially after the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, when it was a useful narrative that not only is Russia not isolated, but there are African countries that continue to seek its assistance.”
Experts say mercenaries have been a tool of Russian interests in Africa, capitalising on discontent with the former colonial and neocolonial powers, as well as offering security in exchange for resources, especially in the Central African Republic. This was less so in Mali, however, where, despite some small-scale gold mining operations, some Wagnerites were so hard-pressed for cash they were purportedly pictured selling discount canned sardines at local markets. There, the priority was seemingly more about Russian influence over the Sahel.
“Now, it is exclusively a question of geopolitics, ousting the collective West from Africa, creating an anti-Western coalition,” explained Sergey Eledinov, a former Russian peacekeeper turned independent Africa specialist based in Dakar, Senegal.
Last year saw another foreign player appear in the Malian conflict.
A contingent of Wagner and Malian troops was ambushed by Tuareg rebels in Tinzaouaten, near the Algerian border, in July, claiming the lives of 84 Russian mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers, including Nikita Fedyanin, a blogger behind the Wagner-linked Telegram channel, Grey Zone.
Ukraine’s spy agency, the GUR, admitted it provided crucial intelligence to the rebels against Russia. There were also reports that Ukrainians taught the rebels how to operate drones.
In response, Mali broke off diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
“We’re not really sure if it’s still ongoing,” Nossiter said about Ukraine’s support.
“At the time, there were reports that other Ukrainian allies were pressuring Ukrainians not to do that,” he explained, noting that the perceived “close ties between the jihadist groups and some of the separatists” may have made Kyiv’s Western backers nervous.
Now, given recent upsetting defeats against Malian and Russian troops, and the intensifying violence in northern Mali, it’s questionable to many whether Wagner’s mission was a success.
“The biggest crowning victory of the Malian military in the last couple of years was retaking this town, Kidal [in 2023], which was a long-time separatist stronghold,” Nossiter said. “It’s the kind of victory people point to and say: without Wagner, it wouldn’t have been possible.”
But at the same time, insecurity continues to be a major challenge, the Sahel researcher emphasised.
“The jihadists, just in the last two weeks, have attacked three major Malian military camps. They also attacked the city of Timbuktu, and they put an IED [improvised explosive device] at a joint Malian-Wagner training camp just outside of the capital city of Bamako,” he said.
Meanwhile, the mercenaries have been accused of the deliberate deaths and disappearances of civilians in their counter-rebellion campaign. In February, a Tuareg convoy returning from a wedding reportedly came under fire from Wagner and Malian forces, killing at least 20 civilians, including children and elderly people.
“Overall, the Russian presence has helped the junta stay in power and appear strong, but it hasn’t solved the deeper security problems, and it’s led to more isolation from the West and international aid,” added Berger.
The Russian position has also been weakened by developments elsewhere.
“Russia’s position has become more precarious following the collapse of key logistics hubs in Syria, specifically the Tartous port and Khmeimim airbase, after the downfall of its protege Bashar al-Assad,” noted Alessandro Arduino, author of Money for Mayhem: Mercenaries, Private Military Companies, Drones, and the Future of War.
In 2023, then-Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin mutinied against the Russian military leadership before he subsequently perished in a suspicious plane crash in August that year. Fearing another uprising, the Kremlin reined in Wagner and other paramilitaries, which have since been more tightly integrated into the command structure and the Africa Corps rose to prominence.
According to Eledinov, this sparked some tension.
“Some of the Wagner fighters went over to the Africa Corps, but most of them stayed to serve in the assault squads,” he said.
“After the death of Prigozhin, the majority of fighters and commanders did not want to go over to the Africa Corps, as a result of which the Wagner assault squads remained in Mali to this day. I assume that now they had no choice [but to withdraw].”
While there’s substantial overlap between the two paramilitary groups, with some estimates claiming 70-80 percent of Africa Corps personnel being Wagner veterans, they are different organisations.
“A lot of reporting on this – especially in the early months after Africa Corps was first announced – assumed that Africa Corps and Wagner were the same thing, and that AC was just Wagner ‘rebranded’,” said Julia Stanyard, another analyst at the Global Initiative.
“In fact, they are separate entities. Africa Corps is more closely managed by the Russian Ministry of Defence and [Russia’s military intelligence agency], the GRU, than Wagner ever was. However, they do have similarities, and many of those recruited to Africa Corps, including many of their commanding officers, are former Wagner mercenaries.”
While Wagner actively engaged on the battlefield, the Africa Corps is set to serve in a more advisory capacity.
“Even after the death of Prigozhin and his mutiny, the Russian government is formalising its presence in the Sahel,” Lechner observed.
“It will be interesting to see how, now that Africa Corps is fully taking over the mission, to what extent Russia’s military presence will have a different character within Mali. The Wagner units were extremely aggressive, operationally very often independent, often going out in direct combat on their own without even being accompanied by [Malian soldiers]. Africa Corps has been designed as more of a training mission, a force that is supposed to protect fixed assets. And it will probably be more bureaucratic because it’s part of the MOD and risk-averse.”
Although Wagner served Russian interests, as mercenaries, they still allowed the Kremlin plausible deniability.
“If earlier, everyone understood that Wagner was Russia, but formally, it was a private company, now, it is entirely Russia. And accordingly, Russia bears much more responsibility [for] all the ensuing consequences, namely purges of civilians, looting and so on,” said Eledinov.
This is how things stand on Monday, June 16:
Chemmani, Sri Lanka — Less than 100 metres (328 ft) from a busy road, policemen stand on watch behind a pair of rust coloured gates that lead to a cemetery in the outskirts of Jaffna, the capital of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province.
The officers are guarding Sri Lanka’s most recently unearthed mass grave, which has so far led to the discovery of 19 bodies, including those of three babies.
The discovery of the mass grave has reopened old wounds for Sri Lanka’s Tamil community, which suffered the worst violence of the island’s 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a group that was seeking a separate homeland for Tamils.
Many Tamils were forcibly disappeared by the state, with a 2017 report by Amnesty International estimating that between 60,000 and 100,000 people have disappeared in Sri Lanka since the late 1980s. In the final stages of the war, which ended in 2009, the Tamil community alleges that nearly 170,000 people were killed, while United Nations estimates put the figure at 40,000.
Chemmani, in particular, has gripped the public imagination for more than 25 years, since the case of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, a schoolgirl who was gang-raped by members of the Sri Lankan Army in 1996 before being killed. Her mother, brother and family friend were also murdered and the four bodies were discovered in Chemmani in 1996.
Former Army Corporal Somaratne Rajapakse, who was found guilty of Krishanthi’s rape and murder, alleged during his trial in 1998 that between 300 and 400 people had been buried in mass graves in Chemmani. Fifteen bodies were discovered the following year based on information he provided, two of which were identified as men who had disappeared in 1996 after being arrested by the army.
The discovery of the new mass grave has also revived an old question that has continued to haunt the Sri Lankan Tamil community in its quest for justice. Past excavations have not fully yielded answers to the questions about forced disappearances and killings during the war, in part because the government has not followed through on the findings, say archaeologists. Can mass graves like the one found in Chemmani really bring closure?
In February, skeletal remains were discovered while a building was being constructed in Chemmani. A 10-day excavation began in mid-May.
Raj Somadeva, the archaeologist leading the excavation, told Al Jazeera that the 19 bodies discovered so far include three “neonatal” skeletons, or babies younger than 10 months old.
He said the bodies would eventually be analysed by doctors to try and determine their cause of death, and that he would use artefacts, such as cellophane wrappers bearing dates or clothes, to try and date the burials. If artefactual material is unavailable, then radioactive dating could be employed as an alternative, he said.
However, Somadeva told Al Jazeera that “less than 40 percent” of the burial site had been excavated so far and that he had already identified a second probable burial site within the cemetery using satellite images and drones to take high-altitude photographs.
“I have submitted an interim report to the court, saying it can be identified as a mass grave and further investigation is needed,” Somadeva said.
Ranitha Gnanarajah, a lawyer representing families of the disappeared, told Al Jazeera she was working with more than 600 people from the Jaffna area who were looking for their missing loved ones, the majority of whom went missing between 1995 and 2008. Many Tamils were displaced in 1995 from Jaffna, the capital of the Northern Province, the country’s Tamil heartland.
She said the families were “fully participating” in the excavation process and wanted the identification efforts to be carried out properly, given that previous excavation efforts had not led to a final conclusion. Family members of missing people are also helping the police in ensuring the security of the site.
However, the willingness on the part of the Tamil community to help excavators in unearthing clues from the Chemmani mass grave is tempered by past experiences.
Recent excavations of other mass graves in Sri Lanka have failed to lead to meaningful answers, setting off allegations of coverups.
Yogarasa Kanagaranjani, the president of the Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED), said she was fearful that Chemmani would follow the pattern of previous excavations in Mannar, Kokkuthoduvai and Thiruketheeswaram, all in the Northern Province.
“This could also be covered up like the other graves, with no justice or answers given,” said Kanagaranjani, whose son Amalan was part of the LTTE and disappeared in 2009 after she said he surrendered to the army. “If you ask the killers to give you justice, will they?”
The largest excavation of a mass grave was carried out in the northwestern region of Mannar. Starting in 2018, the digging was also led by Somadeva. In all, 346 skeletons were unearthed. The excavation was overseen by the Ministry of Justice and the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), established by the government in 2017.
However, Somadeva criticised the state’s handling of the Mannar excavation, saying he had received the artefacts unearthed only a week ago, three years after his initial request, and that he had still not been allocated a budget to analyse them.
He also told Al Jazeera that he had still not been paid “a single cent” for 14 months of work on the Mannar excavation, and had been forced to use his own money to cover his travel expenses.
“We can’t work under this type of circumstances. Nobody takes responsibility,” Somadeva said, describing the OMP as a “white elephant”.
An OMP representative told Al Jazeera it was participating in the Chemmani excavation solely as an observer but that it had facilitated the Mannar excavation alongside the Ministry of Justice. The representative said he believed there were no outstanding payments but was not certain, and declined to comment further in the absence of a formal complaint.
A 2024 report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it “remains concerned that there are insufficient financial, human and technical resources to conduct exhumations in line with international standards and encourages the Government to seek international support in this regard”.
The Jaffna-based Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research said that “the same defects that plagued the previous exhumations persist” in Chemmani, which it said was also “being undertaken without international observation or expertise”.
“If the government wants the Tamil community in general and families of the disappeared in particular to believe in the transparency and genuineness of the exhumation process, it must first adopt without undue delay a clear and comprehensive exhumation policy with adequate funding allocation, allow international participation, actively seek international expertise, and permit the families of the disappeared to participate and have a legal representation in the exhumation process,” Adayaalam said in a written statement to Al Jazeera.
The election of leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in September had sparked hopes among Sri Lankan Tamils that he might support their search for justice. But Kanagaranjani, the ARED president, said that, so far, Dissanayake had failed to deliver.
“It’s now been more than eight months since the president has been in power, but he hasn’t taken the slightest notice of our problems,” she said. “Rulers change, but reality stays the same.”
Kanagaranjani told Al Jazeera that answers were vital for the families of the disappeared as would lead to “clarity”. Like the Adayaalam centre, she too said that the excavation needed “international oversight” and that “investigations [needed] to be carried out in accordance with international standards”.
Thyagi Ruwanpathirana, a South Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said calls for international oversight were “entirely legitimate” given that “there’s not been a single instance where exhumations have been seen through to the end – where remains found in mass graves have been identified and returned to family members for a dignified burial.”
Shohei Ohtani is set to return to the mound as the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the opener of a four-game series against the visiting San Diego Padres, the Major League Baseball (MLB) team has announced.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts originally told reporters on Sunday that Ohtani was set to pitch a simulated game in the coming days, but the team decided to give him the nod against the rival Padres on Monday.
“He’s getting very eager, very excited,” Roberts said. “I think the thought is that given where we’re at right now, anything he can give us is additive, even if it’s an inning or two innings on the front end.”
This will mark Ohtani’s first big league pitching appearance since August 23, 2023, and his first with the Dodgers. The two-way player had Tommy John surgery on his elbow in September 2023, three months before signing a 10-year, $700m contract with the Dodgers.
Ohtani has been ramping up for a return to the mound in June. On Tuesday, the right-hander threw 44 pitches over three simulated innings against minor leaguers from the Dodgers’ Arizona spring complex.
Ohtani’s return could not come at a better time for Los Angeles. Starters Roki Sasaki (right shoulder), Blake Snell (left shoulder) and Tyler Glasnow (right shoulder) are all on the injured list. Sasaki was recently forced to shut down his throwing programme after feeling discomfort this week. There is no timetable for his return this season.
In total, the Dodgers have 14 pitchers on the injured list – the most in the MLB.
Over his career in the majors, Ohtani is 38-19, with a 3.01 ERA in 86 career starts, all with the Los Angeles Angels. In 481 2/3 innings, he has compiled 608 strikeouts and 173 walks.
JJ Spaun has won the US Open golf championship by two shots from Robert MacIntyre after draining an incredible 64-foot birdie putt that snaked across a sodden 18th green following a chaotic final round at the Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, United States.
“Just to finish it off like that is just a dream,” the Californian said after claiming his first major on Sunday.
“To have my own moment like that at this championship, I’ll never forget this moment for the rest of my life.”
Spaun needed only a par at the closing hole to avoid a Monday playoff but went one better, sinking the huge putt in the rain to win the year’s third major and erase the disappointment from his close call at The Players Championship in March.
When the clinching putt dropped, Spaun tossed his putter, delivered a fist pump, hugged his caddie and then walked off the green with his two young daughters in tow on Father’s Day to celebrate a career-defining win.
“It was so cool to just have my whole family there on Father’s Day,” Spaun said. “It’s just incredible. I have no words to describe the moment and them being able to see me as the winner.”
Spaun reached the drivable par-four 17th hole level with Scotland’s MacIntyre, who was already in the clubhouse after a two-under 68, and delivered the shot of his life – a 309-yard strike that settled 17 feet from the cup.
The 34-year-old American sent his eagle putt past the hole but made the comebacker, and then went on to secure the win in style at the 18th, where he said he did not look at the scoreboard so as not to alter his plan.
“I knew based off of, like, what the crowd was saying that I felt like if I two-putted I would probably win, but I didn’t want to look,” said Spaun. “I didn’t want to do anything dumb trying to protect a three-putt or something.”
The final round was interrupted by a 96-minute weather delay after heavy rains forced puddles of water to form on the greens and fairways and forced the grounds crew at Oakmont to use squeegees to get the course ready.
The triumph comes three months after Spaun lost in a playoff to world number two Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship, a defeat which was hard to take but left him knowing he could mix it with the game’s elite.
Viktor Hovland (73) finished three shots back in third place, while Cameron Young (70) and LIV Golf players Tyrrell Hatton (72) and Carlos Ortiz (73) finished a further shot back in a share of fourth place.
Sam Burns (78), who took a one-shot lead over Spaun and Adam Scott into the final round, struggled late in his round and finished five shots back.
Twice major champion Jon Rahm, who began the day 11 shots back, closed with a three-under 67 that was the day’s joint low round, with the Spaniard finishing five shots back in a share of seventh with world number one Scottie Scheffler (70) and Burns.
World number two Rory McIlroy also saved his best for last and carded a 67 to reach seven over.
McIlroy, who had been struggling to find form since completing the career Grand Slam at the Masters, is looking forward to some downtime before the British Open being held next month at Royal Portrush in his home country of Northern Ireland.
“I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks,” McIlroy said.
“But as I said, getting home and having a couple of weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.”
