Mali has launched air strikes on insurgent targets in and around the town of Tinzaouaten, located in the vast northern desert, after ethnic Tuareg rebels and Islamist fighters killed a large number of Malian soldiers and their Russian allies in recent days.
Between July 22 and 27, Mali’s army and the Russian private military company Wagner suffered significant losses in the Tinzaouaten area, near the Algerian border.
This marks one of Wagner’s worst setbacks on African soil. The Russian forces have been in Mali since the military, which took power in coups in 2020 and 2021, expelled French and U.N. troops, replacing them with Wagner operatives.
The Malian army announced on Tuesday that it had attacked a “coalition of terrorists” in the Tinzaouaten area, jointly with forces from neighboring Burkina Faso, which is also governed by a pro-Russian military junta.
“Specific high-value targets including caches, logistical positions, and vehicles have been hit,” the army stated, urging civilians to avoid insurgent areas.
The Tuareg rebel group involved in the earlier clashes, known as the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), condemned the air strikes. They claimed a drone operated by Burkina Faso had killed dozens of civilians, mostly African migrant laborers from Niger, Chad, and Sudan working in local artisanal gold mines.
“This attack against civilians demonstrates the ongoing chaos and failure of these military governments,” CSP said in a statement.
Burkina Faso’s military government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Neither Mali nor Wagner disclosed the number of troops lost in the recent clashes, although Wagner did confirm that the commander of its unit in the area, Sergei Shevchenko, was among the dead. Russian military bloggers estimated over 20 Wagner personnel were killed.
The CSP reported they had killed and injured dozens of Malian and Russian soldiers, while an al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group claimed responsibility for killing 50 Russians and 10 Malian soldiers.
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—former Western allies that have shifted towards Russia since their military coups—signed a mutual defense pact last year, which Mali invoked to justify Burkina Faso’s involvement in the air strikes.
The Tuareg people, who inhabit the Sahara desert including parts of northern Mali, have long complained of marginalization by the Malian government. Tuareg separatists launched an insurgency in 2012, demanding an independent homeland called Azawad. Their struggle later became entangled with an al Qaeda-aligned Islamist rebellion in the region.
