Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group admitted on Monday that its fighters and Malian troopers had suffered casualties in heavy preventing towards Tuareg rebels close to Mali’s border with Algeria. The rebel Tuareg already reported on Saturday in regards to the fierce preventing, throughout which Russian mercenaries and Malian troopers suffered losses.
Moscow/Bamako
12:02 July 29, 2024 Share on Fb
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Beforehand, overseas items, together with Czech ones, helped with the coaching of Malian troopers (archive photograph) | Photograph: Archive of the ACR
Wagner’s group stated in an announcement quoted by Reuters that its forces fought alongside Malian troopers from July 22 to 27. The Wagners had been commanded by Sergej Shevchenko, who was killed in battle.
“On the primary day, his group destroyed a lot of the Islamists and put the remaining to flight,” Wagner’s group stated on the Telegram social community. “However the subsequent sandstorm allowed the militants to regroup and improve their numbers to 1,000 folks,” she added.
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Wagner’s group stated its fighters repulsed the assault once more, however heavy rebel fireplace resulted in casualties amongst each mercenaries and members of the Malian military. The assertion didn’t specify the variety of these killed.
Tuareg rebels stated on Saturday that they had killed and wounded dozens of troopers and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group throughout two days of preventing close to the border with Algeria. The Malian military reported over the weekend that it had misplaced two troopers and killed about 20 insurgents.
The rebels stated in an announcement that they seized armored automobiles, vans and tankers within the preventing on Thursday and Friday. They declare additionally they destroyed a helicopter which subsequently crashed within the city of Kidal. In response to the navy, one in every of its helicopters crashed in Kidal throughout a routine flight, however nobody was killed.
Skilled mercenaries
Wagner’s mercenary group performed a key function in a few of the fiercest battles of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However questions have been raised over its future after its chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in a aircraft crash final August. This occurred two months after he led an unsuccessful revolt towards the Russian military management.
Mali skilled a navy coup in 2020 and 2021. Military officers say Russian instructors are within the nation serving to Malian troopers with gear purchased in Russia. In response to them, it isn’t about mercenaries. Nevertheless, the Baza Telegram channel states that the Wagners have been in Mali since at the least 2021.
Mali has been scuffling with violence for greater than 20 years. Regardless of the sooner presence of UN peacekeeping forces, extremists got here to energy, particularly within the central and northern components of the nation, who in some areas started to use Islamic Sharia regulation. In 2015, a peace settlement with the indigenous Tuareg additionally collapsed, additional complicating the state of affairs.
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