“Soldiers of Allah set up an ambush for them (…) and were able to kill four of them and the rest ran away,” the statement of the jihadist organization states, among other things.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Organization for the Support of Islam and Muslims (WIM) said its members killed four paramilitaries of the Russian private military company Wagner in an ambush in central Mali in a statement verified on Monday by the US-based organization SITE, which specializes in in monitoring jihadist activity online.
This information was confirmed to AFP by two local officials and a hospital source, while a senior officer of the Malian army in the central part of the country refused to confirm or deny this announcement.
On Saturday, “a group of Wagner mercenaries moved on motorcycles in Badiagara district, left the village of Jalo and headed for the mountains,” according to the UIM statement.
“Soldiers of Allah ambushed them (…) and were able to kill four of them and the rest fled,” continues the propaganda statement of the jihadist organization.
Against a backdrop of a rapidly deteriorating security situation, the military junta in Mali has turned its back on France and its partners, choosing to work increasingly closely with Russia to counter the spread of jihadist activity across an increasingly large part of the country, as well as in neighboring states, Burkina Faso and Niger.
Bamako relies heavily on what it describes as “trainers” who came from Russia to support the military, while Paris and Washington denounce the presence in the Sahel country of “mercenaries” from the Russian private military company Wagner, which the military status refuses.
Moscow admitted in May that Wagner is present in Mali “on a commercial basis”, assuring that this is not related to any government decision.
“Four Russians were killed over the weekend by jihadists in the Badiagara region,” said a local elected official, who asked not to be named. Another source close to the authorities gave the same information.
A hospital source in the area also confirmed “the death in combat of four Russians”. The body of one “passed through Mopti hospital”, he added.
Mali’s military has been conducting a series of “pursuit” operations against jihadists in the central part of the country since the start of the year. Several local sources have noted that his forces are accompanied by “white soldiers”.
WIM, whose influence in the field continues to grow, consists of a myriad of jihadist groups; it operates mainly in Mali and Burkina Faso.
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