Russia’s Wagner mercenaries leaving Mali, Africa Corps to remain

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group says it will withdraw from Mali after more than three and a half years on the ground.

The paramilitary force announced the move on Friday, claiming it had successfully completed its mission against armed groups in the West African nation.

In a post on its Telegram channel, the group said that it had brought all of the country’s regional centres back under the control of the Malian military government, pushing out rebel forces and killing their commanders.

But Wagner’s withdrawal from Mali does not mean the country will be without Russian fighters. Russian mercenaries will remain under the banner of the Africa Corps, a separate Kremlin-backed paramilitary group created after Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against the Russian military in June 2023.

“Russia does not lose ground, but on the contrary, continues to support Bamako now at a more fundamental level,” said a statement by Africa Corps, referring to Mali’s capital city.

In addition to Africa Corps, “Russian security advisers are stepping in where the mercenaries are stepping out,” said Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque, reporting from neighbouring Senegal.

Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told Reuters that while “the Russian military engagement in Mali will continue … the focus might change more to training and providing equipment and less actual fighting jihadists.”

JNIM fighters claim deadly attack on army base

The shift in the Russian presence in Mali follows a spate of attacks in recent weeks that rebel fighters say killed more than 100 Malian soldiers, as well as some mercenaries.

Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an armed group in the Sahel, claimed responsibility for the violence, including one attack on Sunday that killed at least 30 soldiers at central Mali’s Boulkessi army base.

Local officials told Reuters the military has since abandoned the base.

Ukrainian-backed Tuareg rebels have also been behind some of the attacks on Russian mercenaries in the country, reported Haque.

“Away from the theatre of the Russia-Ukraine war, in the heart of Africa, the Ukrainians are supporting Tuareg rebels that are fighting Russian mercenaries,” said Haque.

Meanwhile, Malian forces and their Russian allies have been accused of abuses against civilians, including a February attack on a convoy that killed more than 20 people believed to be Tuareg, among them children and elderly people.