Wagner Group Faces Disaster in Mali, Suffering Heavy Losses as It Fails to Stop Jihadist Attacks That Kill 100 People Despite Security Promises
Vladimir Putin is facing disaster in Mali after Russia’s Wagner Group suffered heavy losses and failed to stop jihadist attacks that killed 100 people despite promises to improve security.
In the September 17 attacks, which killed mostly young police recruits, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) appeared to easily cause chaos in two of the country’s most secure locations.
The attacks came as a humiliation for Putin and Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, which had replaced France and the United Nations in Mali by promising to bring security where it did not.
Before the killings in late July, a Wagner column was ambushed and massacred near the Algerian border.
Mali’s northern Tuareg rebels claimed they had killed at least 84 mercenaries as well as nearly 50 Malian soldiers after cornering them in a sandstorm.
This contradicts the image of Russian aid that Putin promoted this week at a summit of African leaders, where he offered “total support” to his allies.
Ulf Laessing, director of the Sahel program at German think tank the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said The Telegraph: ‘On the whole they have not been able to achieve more than the French or the Europeans in improving security, and some say they have made it worse because they are so cruel.
Vladimir Putin (pictured) faces embarrassment in Mali after Russia’s Wagner group failed to stop jihadist attacks that killed 100 people despite promises to improve security
Dozens of Wagner’s private army troops were killed in an ambush in Mali, in a significant setback for Putin
“From a marketing point of view, it will be more difficult for Russia to present that they are really doing a lot, or are more successful than the French and the Europeans.”
Mali has been in a deep crisis since at least 2011, when Tuareg separatists and radical Islamist factions invaded Timbuktu, Gao and several other cities.
Troops from France helped out and achieved some initial successes, but became mired in a difficult counter-insurgency mission marred by strained ties with the government.
Wagner has about 1,500 mercenaries in Mali, 400 in Burkina Faso and about 100 in Niger.
However, the situation in the country has only worsened even before Wagner’s public fight this year.
