Over the course of the weekend, jihadis and rebels in northern Mali murdered scores of Wagner mercenaries, in what one expert on Monday called the biggest battlefield blow to the mysterious Russian company in years. Two others at least were abducted.
An al-Qaida attack claimed fifty Wagner fighters on a truck near the Algerian border. Senior research researcher at the Soufan Center, a security think tank, Sahel specialist Wassim Nasr stated rebel pursuit accompanied the ambush. Nasr said he counted dead on an aftermath video.
According to Nasr, the mercenaries were fighting with Mali’s army, largely against Tuareg rebels, when their convoy was attacked south of Tinzaouaten and forced to withdraw into jihadist territory.
Wagner acknowledged in a Monday Telegram post that some of its members and Malian forces perished in a clash with hundreds of Islamists. The number of fighters lost by the mercenary company remained unknown. The Mali army claims two personnel lost and twenty militants dead.
Claiming in a statement released over the weekend that 50 Wagner fighters killed in their attack, intending to “avenge the massacres committed in the center and north of Mali during the long-running conflict with the radicals”, Al-Qaida said The Tuareg rebels got an unknown count of the turned-in Malian soldiers and mercenaries.
The Associated Press lacked fast access to check the video Nasr cited.
This is very remarkable. Nasr said it will shift the dynamics as it has never happened on African ground before. “Wagner has decided not to go any more stupid excursions close to the Algerian border. They lacked the staff to maintain their position long enough for deployments, even though they had been flaunting their ability and quality.
Russia has sent fighters and asserted control in West Africa using the worsening ties between the West and Sahel nations hit by coups. Seized mineral resources pay mercenaries in the enormous Sahel, the great area south of the Sahara Desert, their security services. Wagner has been slaving here.
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Following a military takeover in late 2021, Wagner arrived in Mali to assist French forces and foreign peacekeeping in assisting in the combat of radicals who had been wreaking havoc on northern and central areas of the country for almost ten years. Wagner has also been accused of aiding in drone operations resulting in raids and civilian deaths.
There are expected to be 1,000 militants in Mali for the outfit.
John Lechner, an independent researcher, says Wagner mercenaries have been too conceited and stretched after helping Mali’s army retake control of the important northern town of Kidal.
He said, failures like the weekend ambush are what kept the Wagner brand alive in Mali. “Private military companies are held responsible for notable losses or setbacks,” he stated. “Congratulations to the Russia’s Ministry of Defence”.
