The main alliance of jihadist organizations operating in the Sahel is holding a Russian man, according to the Russian private military group Wagner, who was “captured” in central Mali, according to a statement / takeover on behalf of the French government.
This is the first time that the Al Qaeda-linked Muslim and Muslim Support Group (UIM) has announced the arrest of a Russian man involved in operations against jihadists in Mali.
UIM, however, did not provide any proof of its claim.
Bamako, ruled by generals who seized power in a 2020 coup, has called on those it presents as “trainers” from Russia to support its armed forces. Paris and Washington have repeatedly denounced the presence of Wagner’s “mercenaries” in the Sahel, a charge that the military junta categorically denies.
UIM said it “arrested a Wagner’s soldier in the Segu area” in central Mali “in the first week of April”.
“These assassins were involved with the Mali army in a paratrooper operation in a market in the town of Moura, where they confronted many mujahideen before encircling the community for five days and killing hundreds of innocent civilians,” the statement said.
Moura was the scene of a controversial Mali army operation in late March. According to authorities in Bamako, his forces “neutralized” 203 jihadists. However, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the armed forces of executing some 300 civilians in summary proceedings with the help of foreign fighters.
Since then, the United Nations mission in the country, MINUSMA, has been asking Bamako in vain to allow it to send members on the ground to conduct an investigation to shed light on the facts.
According to converging sources, a Russian who was operating with a unit of the Mali army was killed on April 19 in central Mali. It was the first confirmed Russian death in a military operation in the African country since the junta came to power in 2020.
On Monday, five soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device was detonated as it passed through the area where their vehicle was stationed in the Bandiagara-Bankas area (central), the general staff said via Twitter.
For his part, the chairman of the African Union Commission, Musa Faki Mahamat, condemned “strongly” in a press release that published Sunday’s attacks on camps.
The day before yesterday, the staff announced the deaths of six soldiers in three separate, simultaneous, “complex” attacks that began with “vehicles trapped with explosives”, against three camps in the central part of the country. A group of fighters affiliated with UIM claimed responsibility.
Mali has been mired in an ever-deepening security crisis since 2012, which the development of foreign powers has not allowed to be resolved. Jihadist activity, which has spread from the north to the central and southern parts of the country, has been complicated by the emergence of paramilitary tribes and criminal gangs. This conflict has cost the lives of thousands of people, civilians and combatants. Central Mali has now become a hotbed of crisis in the Sahel.
The military junta approached Moscow while moving away from Paris, which was militarily involved in the country – a former French colony – against the jihadists in 2013.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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