In 2021, the military government of the West African state sought assistance from the infamous Wagner group to combat separatist and Islamist militants.
The Russian organization, which is now known as Africa Corps, announced on Monday that it had accompanied Mali’s armed forces in “heavy battles” against jihadist terrorists and separatist rebels last week.
However, sources close to Africa Corps informed the news that the separatists conducted a significant onslaught that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20 to 50 mercenaries.
Likewise, a number of Russian military blogs stated that the ambush close to the northeastern village of Tinzaouaten claimed the lives of at least twenty people.
The Russian mercenary outfit acknowledged sustaining “losses” but did not provide an exact number of military deaths in an official statement that was uploaded to Telegram. Among them was Sergei Shevchenko, a commander who was slain in combat.
According to the statement, the mercenaries first “destroyed most of the Islamists and put the rest to flight.”.
“However, [an] ensuing sandstorm allowed the radicals to regroup and increase their numbers to 1,000 people,” it said.
The incident was attributed to the separatist group Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security, and Development (CSP-PSD), which is headed by the Tuareg ethnic group.
According to the CSP-PSD spokeswoman, “on Saturday, our forces dealt a decisive blow to the enemy columns.” This information was reported in the news.
