Russian mercenary group Wagner acknowledged Monday that it had suffered heavy losses throughout clashes with separatist forces in northeast Mali final week.
The West African nation, which has been actively preventing terrorists and separatist forces in its north for over a decade, turned to Wagner for assist after a navy junta got here to energy in 2020.
From July 22 to 27, the Malian armed forces and fighters from Wagner’s thirteenth Assault Squad “fought fierce battles” in opposition to a coalition of Tuareg separatist forces and terrorists, in response to Razgruzka Vagnera, a Telegram channel linked to Wagner management.
Over a interval of two days, the separatists “increased the number of massive attacks, using heavy weapons, drones and SVBIEDs (suicide car bombs), which caused losses on the part of Wagner and Malian army soldiers,” the assertion mentioned.
The commander of the thirteenth Assault Squad, Sergei “Prud” Shevchenko, was killed in motion, it added, and his group’s remaining message was: “There are three of us left. We are continuing to fight.”
A spokesman for the CSP-DPA alliance, a coalition together with primarily Tuareg separatist forces, claimed victory over Mali’s military and Wagner on Sunday.
Mali’s navy leaders, who seized energy in a coup, have made it a acknowledged precedence to retake the whole nation from separatists and terrorists, notably Kidal, a pro-independence bastion within the north.
Source: www.dailysabah.com