Armed groups in Mali’s predominantly Tuareg north say they have killed or wounded dozens of government soldiers and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group in two days of fighting near the border with Algeria.
The rebel movement, the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), said in a statement on July 27 that it had seized armored vehicles, trucks and tankers in the fighting in Tinzaouaten, a border town, on July 25 and 26.
The Malian Army said in statements that two soldiers had been killed and 10 injured in a rebel attack, which also disabled two armored vehicles and two pickup trucks. The army claimed its troops killed approximately 20 rebels and destroyed several vehicles.
On social media, amateur videos showed the lifeless bodies of several white men and Malian soldiers scattered on the ground alongside destroyed vehicles.
Several Russian military bloggers said on July 28 that at least 20 from the Wagner group were killed in an ambush near the Algerian border.
"Employees of the Wagner PMC (Group), who were moving in a convoy with government troops, were killed in Mali...Some were captured," said a prominent Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, who uses the name War Gonzo.
The Baza Telegram news channel, which has links to Russia's security structures, reported that at least 20 Wagner fighters have been killed.
Wagner was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of Russia's war in Ukraine, but its fate was put into question when its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in August 2023, two months after leading a brief mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Mali, where military authorities seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, is battling a years-long Islamist insurgency. It has said Russian forces there are not Wagner mercenaries but trainers helping local troops with equipment bought from Russia.
