A commander from a Russian mercenary group has been killed in Mali following an attack by rebel fighters during a sandstorm. The military regime in the West African state had turned to the Wagner group in 2021, seeking support against jihadist and separatist forces.
On Monday, the group, now operating under the name Africa Corps, reported joining Mali’s military in “fierce battles” against separatist rebels and jihadist militants last week. However, the separatists launched a major attack, resulting in the death of an estimated 20 to 50 mercenaries, according to sources close to Africa Corps and Russian military bloggers. Among the casualties was commander Sergei Shevchenko.
The mercenaries initially “destroyed most of the Islamists and put the rest to flight,” but a sandstorm allowed the radicals to regroup and increase their numbers to 1,000.
The Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), a separatist group dominated by the Tuareg ethnic group, claimed responsibility for the attack, capturing prisoners and damaging or seizing equipment and weapons.
“On Saturday, our forces dealt a decisive blow to the enemy columns,” AFP quoted the CSP-PSD’s spokesperson as saying. Prisoners were taken and “a large amount of equipment and weapons were damaged or captured”, the spokesman added.
The rebel group released videos showing numerous white men in military fatigues lying motionless on a sandy plain and another group of mostly black men wearing blindfolds with their hands tied behind their backs. The authenticity of these videos has not been confirmed.
Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, also claimed sole responsibility for the attack, stating they killed 50 Russian mercenaries in a “complex ambush.”
Mali’s central government lost control of much of the north more than a decade ago following a Tuareg rebellion. The security situation was further complicated by the involvement of Islamist militants. The current military junta, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, cited the government’s inability to tackle this unrest as justification for their actions. The junta severed Mali’s long-running alliance with former colonial power France in favor of Russia to quell the unrest. The Wagner group was dismantled after a mutiny by its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin last year, leading to its replacement in West Africa by Africa Corps.
Melissa Enoch
Follow us on:
