(Bloomberg) -- A Malian rebel group said it killed scores of soldiers and foreign fighters during battles with the West African nation’s Russian mercenary-backed army last month.
The Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad, a coalition of anti-government groups in northern Mali, said it killed 84 mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group and 47 Malian troops over three days of fighting. The pro-Kremlin Africa Initiative said on Monday that more than two dozen Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers were killed during the fight, which would have been the heaviest loss for the group since it deployed to Mali in 2021.
A Malian military spokesman declined to comment when reached by phone. The army’s chief of staff previously said two soldiers were killed and 10 wounded in the clashes in Tinzaouaten near Mali’s northern border with Algeria.
More than 30 “enemy forces” were injured and military equipment including tanks, arms and vehicles were captured or destroyed, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the rebels, said in a post on X. Seven Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers were captured, he said.
Mali’s army, backed by Burkina Faso, said it launched airstrikes against the rebels on July 30, which the rebels said killed 50 civilians — many of them small-scale miners from Niger, Sudan and Chad.
A Burkina Faso army spokesman wasn’t available to comment when reached by phone.
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