Mali: Tuareg-led rebel coalition claims major victory over govt. troops, Russian mercenaries

A Tuareg-led separatist rebel coalition claims a major victory over Mali’s army, saying they had killed and injured dozens of government soldiers and their allied mercenaries from the Wagner group.

Following three days of intense fighting in the Tinzaouatene district near the border with Algeria, the rebel movement, the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) claimed Sunday (28 July) they had “decisively obliterated” enemy columns and seized or damaged a large amount of equipment and weapons. The rebels said in a statement they had seized armored vehicles, trucks and tankers and damaged a helicopter, which crashed in a separate location.

The Malian army presented a somewhat different story in statements, saying that two soldiers had been killed and 10 injured, but it had killed some 20 rebels. The army added that no one was killed in the helicopter that crashed.

Meanwhile, several Russian military bloggers have reported that at least two dozen mercenaries from the Wagner group were killed and some captured in an ambush near the Algerian border.

Mali’s ruling junta took power in 2020 and turned to Russia’s mercenaries for security assistance, after expelling French forces in 2022. Large-scale fighting broke out last week between the West African nation’s army and the Tuareg-led separatists in northern Mali who have been fighting for independence since 2012.