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A commander of a Russian mercenary group was killed in Mali after being attacked by rebels during a sandstorm, according to the group.
In 2021, the West African country’s military regime turned to the notorious Wagner Group for support in its fight against jihadists and separatist forces.
On Monday, the Russian armed forces, now renamed the Afrika Korps, said it had joined Mali’s army last week in “fierce fighting” against separatist rebels and jihadists.
However, sources close to the Afrika Korps told the BBC that the separatists launched a large-scale attack, killing around 20 to 50 mercenaries.
Likewise, several Russian military bloggers reported that at least 20 people were killed in an ambush near the northeastern town of Tinzavatn.
In an official statement published on Telegram, the Russian mercenary group did not specify the number of its soldiers killed, but confirmed “losses”. Among them was the commander Sergei Shevchenko who was killed in combat.
The mercenaries initially “eliminated most of the Islamists and pushed back the remaining militants,” the statement said.
“However, the subsequent sandstorm enabled the militants to regroup and their numbers increased to 1,000,” it added.
The Tuareg-dominated separatist group, the Strategic Framework for Permanent Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), claimed responsibility for the attack.
“On Saturday, our troops dealt a decisive blow to the enemy,” a spokesman for the Czech Socialist-Social Democratic Party was quoted as saying by AFP.
The spokesman added that with their capture, “a large amount of equipment and weapons were damaged or captured”.
The insurgent group shared video footage showing multiple white men in military uniforms lying motionless in the sand.
Another photo shows a group of men, mostly black, wearing blindfolds and with their hands tied behind their backs.
The BBC has not yet confirmed the authenticity of the videos.
The al-Qaeda affiliate Jamiat Nasional al-Islam and Muslims (JNIM) also claimed full responsibility for the attack.
Islamist militants claimed they had killed 50 Russian mercenaries in a “sophisticated ambush”.
More than a decade ago, a Tuareg rebellion demanding an independent state led to Mali’s central government losing control of much of the north.
The country’s security situation has been further complicated by the involvement of Islamist militants in the conflict.
When the military seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, it cited the government’s inability to deal with the unrest.
To quell the unrest, the new military government severed Mali’s long-standing alliance with former colonial power France and allied itself instead with Russia.
But the Wagner mercenary group was effectively disbanded after its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a mutiny last year, leading to its presence in West Africa being replaced by the Afrika Korps.
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