Is the war between Russia and Ukraine being exported to the Sahel?

The Malian army, supported by Russian mercenaries from the Africa Corps, formerly Wagner, suffered a heavy defeat at the end of July against Tuareg rebels. Ukrainian intelligence claims that this victory was possible thanks to their support.

At the end of July, in northern Mali, in Tinzaouatène, violent fighting took place between Tuareg rebels and Malian armed forces supported by elements of the Africa Corps, the former Russian Wagner group. The rebels claim to have killed 84 mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers. This event is a priori far from the Ukrainian aggression, but on July 29, a senior Ukrainian intelligence official claimed that the Tuareg rebels had received from them “useful information” to this victory. This statement sparked strong reactions among West African diplomats, as well as from Russia, which accused Ukraine of opening a “second front” in Africa.

The mercenaries of the Africa Corps, the new name of the private military company Wagner, had never suffered such a defeat since their arrival in Mali in 2022. Violent fighting pitted them against members of the Permanent Strategic Framework – Defense of the People of Azawad, the CSP-DPA, a conglomerate of Tuareg independence groups that went to war against the Malian capital Bamako and its Russian allies. According to Andryi Yousov, spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, the Tuaregs won because they received Ukrainian support.

Comments tempered by Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesperson for the CSP-DPA: “It is true that we have friends all over the world. We are not isolated, we are reaching out, we are multiplying contacts because we are suffering massacres. Particularly towards those who, like us, are suffering from Wagner’s terror, like the Ukrainian people.” However, according to the newspaper’s information The Worldsome rebel leaders are said to have traveled to Ukraine and others are said to have received training in drone handling from the Ukrainians. For his part, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane does not confirm this information.

However, this would not be the first time that Ukraine has distinguished itself on the African continent against Russia. In 2023, special forces had already been sent to a neighborhood in the suburbs of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, in order to eliminate elements of Wagner.

Following this affair, the Malian and Nigerien capitals broke off diplomatic relations with kyiv. In a tweet on Friday, August 9, the Alliance of Sahel States, composed of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, also posted a photo of a drone, identified according to it at the site of the attack in Tinzaouatène and “used by the Ukrainian army in the conflict with Russia.”