By Anthony Marcus, correspondent. Eurasia Business News, July 28, 2024. Article n°1111.

Tuareg rebels in northern Mali claim to have inflicted significant losses on Wagner Group mercenaries and Malian government forces in a recent clash.

A coalition of armed groups in northern Mali said that near the border with Algeria, Tuareg rebels killed and wounded dozens of government soldiers and Russian fighters from the Wagner PMC. The Malian General Staff estimated its losses at 2 people and reported the destruction of 20 rebels.

Reuters and the Associated Press report a statement by the insurgency. The statement said that in the battles near the city of Tinzaouaten on July 25 and 26, the Tuareg “defeated the entire column of the Malian army and Russian mercenaries,” and also seized military vehicles and armored vehicles. Rebel spokesman Mohamed El-Maulud Ramadan said that some of the Malian soldiers and fighters of the Wagner PMC surrendered.

According to TASS press agency, the Malian General Staff reported that the government army is waging fierce battles with Tuareg militant detachments near the border with Algeria. The territory of the clashes “remains a bastion of concentration of terrorists and smugglers.” Five targets of the militants were destroyed by drones.

On July 25, in the area of the city of Tinzauaten, the rebels attacked a patrol of government troops. The Malian authorities reported that the militants were resisted.

The situation was not reported on the resources of the Wagner PMC. The Russian blogger Boris Rozhin said on Telegram that among the captured mercenaries was one of the successors of the founder of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, under the call sign Lotus. He clarified that Lotus was exchanged. In addition, as Mr. Rozhin wrote, according to some reports, among the dead was the administrator of Grey Zone, a Telegram channel close to the Wagner PMC. Photos of his body appeared on social networks. The last post in the Grey Zone was made on July 23.

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The armed conflict in Mali began in 2012 with an uprising of separatists who declared the independence of the northern regions of the country. In 2014, the Malian authorities and the Tuareg movement signed a ceasefire agreement, but radical Islamist groups linked with Al Qaida have become more active in the country. Over the past few years, the Wagner PMC has been operating in Mali on the side of government troops, to help them secure the Malian terriroty.

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The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in November 2021 that the local authorities themselves turned to PMCs to fight terrorists. In the end of June 2023, after an attempted rebellion by Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, as Mr. Lavrov reported, the Malian authorities established official contacts with the Russian authorities.

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© Copyright 2024 – Eurasia Business News. Article No. 1111.