Private army led by Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov accused of acquiring weaponry for use in Ukraine
The United States has imposed sanctions on the head of the Wagner group in Mali, accusing the Russian private army of using the country as a conduit for arms and military equipment for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The US Treasury said Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov works closely with Malian officials to build Wagner’s presence in Mali and elsewhere in Africa.
Continue reading...Report implicates Wagner group fighters in Moura atrocity, including the torture and rape of civilians
First came a single helicopter, flying low over the marshes around the river outside the village, then the rattle of automatic fire scattered the crowds gathered for the weekly market.
Next came more helicopters, dropping troops off around the homes and cattle pens. The soldiers moved swiftly, ordering men into the centre of the village, gunning down those trying to escape. When some armed militants fired back, the shooting intensified. Soon at least 20 civilians and a dozen alleged members of an al-Qaida affiliated Islamist group, were dead.
Continue reading...More than 100 people invaded the village in northern Yatenga province, survivors say, amid increasing attacks blamed on suspected jihadists
About 60 civilians were killed in a village in northern Burkina Faso by men wearing military uniforms, a local prosecutor has said, announcing an investigation into the latest bloodshed.
Attacks blamed on suspected jihadists are on the rise in the west African country, which is battling an insurgency that spilled over from neighbouring Mali.
Continue reading...At least nine people reportedly killed and 60 injured in attack in town of Sévaré
At least nine civilians were killed and more than 60 injured in a triple suicide bomb attack in the central Mali town of Sévaré early on Saturday, an official has said.
“The blast destroyed about 20 houses in the neighbourhood. There are a total of nine dead and about 60 wounded, all civilians,” said Yacouba Maiga, a spokesperson for the regional governor.
Continue reading...Dmitry Sytii under US sanctions for links to mercenary group founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is close to Vladimir Putin
A Russian businessman believed to be a close ally of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group founder, has been taken to hospital in Central African Republic (CAR) after an “assassination attempt”, the RIA Novosti news agency has reported, citing the local Russian embassy.
Dmitry Sytii, who officially works as head of the “Russian House” culture centre in CAR’s capital, Bangui, had sanctions imposed on him by the US in September 2020 for his alleged links to Wagner Group, a private military group that has deployed more than 1,000 fighters in the unstable country to fight rebels.
Continue reading...French president says Moscow is pursuing ‘predatory project’ to spread influence in African countries
Emmanuel Macron has accused Russia of feeding disinformation to further its “predatory project” in Africa, where France has had military setbacks.
In an interview with TV5 Monde on the sidelines of a conference of Francophone nations in Tunisia, he said there was a “predatory project” pushing disinformation into African countries, which was “a political project financed by Russia, sometimes others”.
Continue reading...Germany latest to end peacekeeping mission as operations prove unable to stop Islamic extremist insurgency
Thousands of international troops are withdrawing from Mali amid surging violence, growing Russian influence and an acute humanitarian crisis.
On Wednesday Germany became the latest country to end its participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in the unstable west African country. Earlier this week, British officials said that 300 British soldiers sent in 2020 to join the United Nations force would be returning earlier than planned.
Continue reading...Wagner Group fighters linked to attack that killed at least 13 following major military operation
Russian mercenaries in Mali have been accused of a new massacre of civilians following a major military operation in the centre of the unstable country.
At least 13 civilians were killed on Sunday in the region of Mopti by Malian troops supported by “white soldiers”, local elected officials and an official of a community association told the Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...Alleged massacre took place on market day in Hombori after military convoy hit explosive device
At least 50 civilians were killed during a military operation conducted by Mali’s army and “foreign troops” on 19 April, according to a report by the UN.
The UN has repeatedly accused Malian soldiers of summarily executing civilians and suspected militants during their decade-long fight against groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State.
Continue reading...Politician’s office says move comes after ‘intense exertion’, while adviser denies reports of a stroke
The prime minister of Mali, Choguel Maïga, has been ordered by his doctor to rest after months of intense exertion, his office said on Saturday, while an adviser denied media reports that he had been hospitalised after having a stroke.
“After 14 months of working without a break, the prime minister, head of government, Choguel Kokalla Maïga was placed on forced rest by his doctor,” his office said on its Facebook page. “He will resume his activities next week, God willing.”
Continue reading...UN says terror organisation, whose affiliate recently attacked Mali’s most important military base, ‘is once again the leader of global jihad’
It was one of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s last victories. Just over a week before the al-Qaida leader was killed in Kabul by missiles fired from a US drone, militants from the organisation’s biggest affiliate in sub-Saharan Africa attacked the most important military base in Mali.
The tactics of the attack were familiar – suicide bombers blowing a gap in defences to allow gunmen to reached stunned defenders – but the operation marked a major escalation.
Continue reading...New classification would mean a total ban on international trade in the animal’s body parts, as climate crisis and poaching hit populations
Hippos could be added to the list of the world’s most endangered animals because of dwindling populations caused by the climate crisis, poaching and the ivory trade.
The semi-aquatic mammals are found in lakes and rivers across sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated population of 115,000-130,000. As well as the trade in ivory – found in its teeth – and animal parts, they are threatened by habitat loss and degradation, and the effects of global heating.
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin accused of financing Wagner mercenary group responds to accusations of massacres in Mali
A Russian businessman and close ally of Vladimir Putin accused by the US, EU and others of financing the private military company Wagner group has said that “a dying-out western civilisation” will be defeated by Russia.
The Guardian had approached Yevgeny Prigozhin seeking his reaction to evidence implicating Wagner fighters in massacres in Mali. In response he said he had “repeatedly said that the Wagner group does not exist” and that he had “nothing to do with it”.
Continue reading...Analysis: Wagner group ‘like a bull in a china shop’ in unstable parts of Africa, say experts
Western officials told the Guardian earlier this year that the Wagner mercenary group was the “thin end of the wedge” and a “Trojan horse” for a Russian effort to extend its influence covertly in resource-rich and unstable parts of Africa.
In Mali, the group is filling a vacuum left by departing French troops who led international efforts to counter a decade-long insurgency. That effort, which included one of the largest UN peacekeeping missions in the world, failed, and the violence has spilled across the volatile Sahel region, displacing tens of millions and destabilising fragile countries such as Niger and Burkina Faso.
Continue reading...Exclusive: internal Malian army documents show Wagner operatives took part in ‘mixed missions’
Russian mercenaries in Africa have been linked to massacres in which several hundred civilians have died, raising new fears about the impact of Moscow’s intensifying interventions on the stability and security of countries across the continent.
Western officials have so far largely steered clear of naming the perpetrators of killings but witnesses, local community leaders, diplomats and local analysts blamed many of the deaths on fighters deployed by the Wagner group, a network of private companies run by a close ally of Vladimir Putin.
Continue reading...Islamist group says it captured mercenary from Kremlin-linked private security firm
A jihadist group in Mali claims to have captured a fighter from the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group reportedly fighting Islamist militants in the west African country.
“In the first week of April, [we] captured a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the Segou region in central Mali,” the GSIM (the Group to Support Islam and Muslims) said in a statement sent to AFP overnight.
Continue reading...Army says it filmed mercenaries burying bodies to falsely accuse France of leaving behind mass graves
Russian mercenaries buried bodies near a Malian military base to falsely accuse France’s departing forces of leaving behind mass graves, the French military has claimed.
The French army said it used a drone to film what appeared to be white soldiers covering bodies with sand near the Gossi base in northern Mali.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch says deaths during anti-jihadist operation in Moura ‘the worst atrocity in Mali in a decade’
Suspected Russian mercenaries participated in an operation with Mali’s army in March in which about 300 civilian men were allegedly executed over five days, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.
Eyewitnesses and local community leaders said hundreds of men were rounded up and killed in small groups during the anti-jihadist operation on 23 March in the central town of Moura. The rural town of about 10,000 inhabitants is in the Mopti region, a hotspot of jihadist activity that has intensified and spread to neighbouring countries in the Sahel region.
Continue reading...Fears of jihadist push in Gulf of Guinea after Macron and allies pull out
France and its European partners are to begin a military withdrawal from Mali after more than nine years fighting a jihadist insurgency, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, confirmed on Thursday.
Asked at the Élysée if the withdrawal marked a failure for France and its policy of fighting terrorism in west Africa, Macron said: “I completely reject that term.”
Continue reading...Across the continent, young Africans are using their unique local knowledge and bargaining power to challenge beliefs about female genital mutilation
It took courage for Ayodeji Bella to raise the subject of female genital mutilation in her rural community in southern Nigeria. She knew local chiefs were key to challenging beliefs around the practice but when Bella, who was cut at five, broached the issue with an elder from her village, she was rebuked.
“I was young and unmarried and they wouldn’t take me seriously.”
Continue reading...