Mali

For the best part of a decade, France has attempted to tackle Islamist insurgencies in the Sahel, a semi-arid region of Africa lying in an arc below the Sahara. Centred on Mali, the mission - Operation Barkhane - has now grown to include counter-terrorism operations in Burkina Faso and Niger. However, the French campaign is now in serious difficulties. As well as failing to rein in Islamist groups, Paris is now increasingly at odds with the Malian Government and facing growing public hostility. This has led many to ask whether France is now facing its own Afghanistan. Waging a seemingly unwinnable war, it can't stay - but nor can it leave.
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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.”

France first deployed troops against jihadists in Mali in 2013 under the Socialist president François Hollande, but the insurgency was never fully quelled, and there are now fears of a jihadist push to the Gulf of Guinea.

Relations between France and Mali have deteriorated after two coup d’états and the military regime’s reluctance to agree to an immediate transition to civilian rule. The presence of Russian mercenary forces from the private military Wagner group has increased tension, with the EU accusing Mali’s military regime of using them to shore up their own power.

“Multiple obstructions” by the ruling junta meant conditions were no longer in place to operate in Mali, France and its African and European allies said in a statement.

The withdrawal applies to 2,400 French troops in Mali and a smaller European force of several hundred, which was created in 2020 to reduce the burden on French forces.
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www.theguardian.com

France announces military withdrawal from Mali after nine years

Fears of jihadist push in Gulf of Guinea after Macron and allies pull out
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Mali's ruling junta ordered French broadcasters RFI and France 24 off the air on Wednesday night, complaining they had falsely accused the army of committing abuses.
The government in Bamako "categorically rejects these false accusations against the courageous FAMA (Malian Armed Forces)," spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said.
The junta is "initiating proceedings... to suspend broadcasts by RFI and France 24... until further notice," he continued.
RFI and France 24 were still broadcasting on Thursday morning in the conflict-ridden Sahel nation.
There is no recent precedent in Mali for major foreign news media to be taken off the air.
RFI (Radio France Internationale) and France 24 cover African news extensively and have a strong following in the former French colony.
The junta, which seized power in August 2020, said there had been "false accusations" in a report early in the week in which RFI aired comments from alleged victims of abuse by the army and shadowy Russian private-security group Wagner.
Maiga said Malian news websites, newspapers and its national radio and TV stations were all "banned from rebroadcasting and/or publishing programmes and news articles put out by RFI and France 24".
He compared the French broadcasters to Rwanda's Radio Mille Collines -- a notorious outlet that incited listeners to exterminate minority Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.
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Malian junta orders French broadcasters RFI, France 24 off air

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www.spacewar.com
 
America’s top commander for Africa said Thursday he personally urged Mali’s ruling military junta not to invite in Russian mercenaries the Wagner Group before it did just that.

The West African country’s transitional government has reportedly allowed in as many as 1,000 mercenaries from the Russian private contractor since December, highlighting competing efforts by Russia and the U.S. to wield influence in the region. The private military company has been linked by the U.S. government to a former Russian intelligence officer with deep Kremlin connections.

Mali had been the center of western counterterror efforts, and instability in the Sahel is expected to rise as France ends its nine-year troop presence there. France maintains 4,300 troops in West Africa and is repositioning troops that had been in Mali.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, U.S. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of U.S. Africa Command, said Mali’s transitional government invited Wagner because it thought it would do a better job than the French against violent extremist groups plaguing the country.

“When I learned of this, I traveled to Mali and I met with the president there ― the junta president there, and I explained that I thought it was a bad idea to invite Wagner in because we’ve seen them in Syria and other places in Africa,” Townsend said of his meeting with the junta’s leader, Col. Assimi Goita.

“Wagner obeys no rules. They won’t follow the direction of the government,” Townsend continued. “They won’t partner more effectively. I think they will only bring in bad.”

According to Townsend, the president said he was dealing only with Russia’s defense ministry. That conflicts with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement last month that the state has nothing to do with Russian military contractors in Mali, Townsend noted.

The Wagner Group, which is establishing its base camps, may make some initial gains, but it’s already suffered some casualties at the hands of violent extremist groups there, Townsend said.

“Mercenaries from the Kremlin’s Wagner Group offer their services for profit: regime protection resource exploitation, and horrific violence against Africans such as we see in Ukraine today,” Townsend said.

United Nations experts last year urged the Central African Republic to cut ties with Wagner, accusing the private security force of violent harassment, intimidation and sexual abuse.

In a sign of Russia’s potential influence on the African continent, a U.N. resolution this month to condemn the invasion of Ukraine saw just 28 of the 54 African countries ― or roughly half ― vote in favor of the resolution, Brookings noted in a recent report.

In the Mideast and Africa, there are fears that war between two of the globe’s main producers of grain will create food insecurity and then instability. Townsend and U.S. Central Command’s Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said they expect Ethiopia, Egypt and Jordan to need added humanitarian aid as a result.
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www.defensenews.com

AFRICOM’s chief warned Mali about the Wagner Group. It didn’t work.

America’s top commander for Africa said Thursday he personally urged Mali’s ruling military junta not to invite in Russian mercenaries the Wagner Group before it did just that.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
 
A group of Malian political parties has called for an investigation into the "very troubling" death of ex-prime minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga in detention in the Sahel state.
Maiga was a close ally of former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was overthrown by strongman Colonel Assimi Goita in a military coup in August 2020.
The former prime minister had been in custody since August 2021, under indictment for fraud among other charges, before being transferred to the clinic where he died this week, aged 67.
Late Monday, a group of political parties named the "Cadre d'echange", or Exchange Framework, stated that Maiga had died "a political prisoner, in very troubling conditions".
The group of about a dozen parties -- of which Maiga was a leader -- called on Mali's army-dominated government to establish an independent inquiry into his death.
Another political group, Parena, also urged the authorities to investigate Maiga's death on Monday.
The former prime minister's relatives had requested his release arguing he needed urgent medical treatment, but the had authorities refused.
His brother Tiegoum Boubeye Maiga likened the death to a "planned assassination".
"Either they wanted to kill him, or make him impotent for life," he said.
Maiga was appointed Keita's prime minister in 2017 but resigned in April 2019 over a massacre that left 160 people dead.
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Mali parties urge inquiry into ex-PM's 'troubling' death

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www.spacewar.com
 
Hilan lukko kirjoitti:
Jos on verissä, niin ei voi piätellä.
www.hs.fi

Mali | HRW: Venäläisten palkkasotilaiden epäillään osallistuneen 300 siviiliä tappaneeseen operaatioon Malissa

Ihmisoikeusjärjestön mukaan kyseessä on pahin hirmuteko Malin vuosikymmenen kestäneessä aseellisessa konfliktissa.
www.hs.fi www.hs.fi
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Tämä ehkä on tylyä. Mutta tuolla islamistit on päivällä normi kansalaisia, sit välillä hypätään moottoripyörien selkään kokoonnutaan jonnekin, tapetaan kylä ja painellaan taas takasin koti savimajaan odottelemaan. Ei niitä karsita pois länsimaisilla keinoilla, se on jo nähty niin Somaliassa, Irak, A-maa yms.
 
Vääpeli kirjoitti:
Tämä ehkä on tylyä. Mutta tuolla islamistit on päivällä normi kansalaisia, sit välillä hypätään moottoripyörien selkään kokoonnutaan jonnekin, tapetaan kylä ja painellaan taas takasin koti savimajaan odottelemaan. Ei niitä karsita pois länsimaisilla keinoilla, se on jo nähty niin Somaliassa, Irak, A-maa yms.
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Ymmärrän kyllä, mutta menee valkoinen mies minkälaisella pumpulla tahansa sinne, niin tulos on aina sama, jatkuu vaan.
Vaikeaa on, ei kai ne osaa olla jouten.:sneaky:
Mutta Wagner, no ehkä win-win tilanne.
 
Mali said on Wednesday that military investigators had opened an investigation into events in the village of Moura, the site of an alleged massacre by local forces and foreign fighters.

"Following the allegations of alleged abuses committed against civilians... investigations have been opened by the national gendarmes on the instructions of the defence ministry and veterans to carry out thorough investigations to shed light on these allegations," the military prosecutor said in a statement.

Mali's army announced on April 1 that it had killed 203 militants in Moura, in the centre of the Sahel nation, during an operation in late March.

However, that announcement followed widely shared social media reports of a civilian massacre in the area.

Human Rights Watch said this week that Malian forces and foreign fighters killed 300 civilians in
Moura, in what it called "the worst single atrocity reported in Mali's decade-long armed conflict".
Malian forces were operating in tandem with white foreign soldiers, according to HRW, who are believed to be Russian because witness accounts refer to them as non-French-speaking.

Russia has supplied what are officially described as military instructors to Mali.

However, the United States, France, and others, say the instructors are operatives from the Russian private-security firm Wagner.

On Wednesday, independent UN human rights expert Alioune Tine urged an independent and impartial investigation into the events.

In a statement, he called on the Malian authorities to allow the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as Minusma, to perform the investigation.

"The findings must be made public and the alleged perpetrators brought to justice," Tine added.
The rights expert joins the United States, European Union, the UN and the Malian human rights commission in calling for an investigation into the alleged massacre.
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Mali opens probe in Moura, site of alleged massacre

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www.spacewar.com
 
A Malian army helicopter fired several rockets "close to" British members of a UN peacekeeping force in the country, the UK defence ministry and UN said Tuesday in the first such incident of its nature.

The incident was the first of its kind between Mali, newly backed by Russian forces, and UN peacekeepers, a UN source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We are aware of a recent incident in Mali in which rockets were fired by a Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) helicopter close to a detachment of UK personnel," a defence ministry spokesman said in a message to AFP.

"All UK personnel are safe and accounted for, and the circumstances surrounding this incident are being investigated," he added.

The incident took place in the area of Tessit, near Gao city in the east of the country.
According to a diplomatic document seen by AFP, the Malian army fired six rockets from its helicopter.

The document says almost all Malian helicopters are flown by Russians assisted by Malian co-pilots.

The statement questioned whether several MINUSMA contingents could remain in place if Russian troops were involved.

Last week Richard Mills, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, denounced an "unacceptable" incident, which took place on March 22 when a Malian helicopter "fired rockets near peacekeepers in eastern Mali".

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday said a UN investigation into the events was underway.

A team from the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan is ready to go to Moura in central Mali as soon as the Malian authorities give air access to the area, he added.

According to a diplomat who spoke anonymously, paramilitaries from the Russian company Wagner are suspected to have been involved in this incident alongside the Malian army.
France and other Western nations have denounced the Malian authorities' alleged use of the controversial Russian private security group. The Malian authorities have said they do not use mercenaries.
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Mali helicopter fired 'close to' UK peacekeepers: London, UN source

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www.spacewar.com
 
The French army says it has filmed Russian mercenaries burying bodies near a Malian military base to falsely accuse France’s departing forces of leaving behind mass graves.

The video, filmed with a drone and seen by AFP on Thursday, shows what appear to be Caucasian soldiers covering bodies with sand near the Gossi base in northern Mali.

The claim came after a Twitter account using the name Dia Diarra, who describes himself as a “former soldier” and “Malian patriot”, posted images of pixelated corpses buried in sand and accused France of atrocities.

“This is what the French left behind them when they left the base in Gossi … We cannot keep silent!” the account wrote.

France’s general staff called the Twitter video an “information attack” and said the profile was “very probably a fake account created by Wagner”, a private Russian mercenary group.

France’s army said comparing the photos published on Twitter against images taken by a special sensor allows them to “draw a direct line” between Wagner’s activities and what has been falsely attributed to French soldiers.

“This manoeuvre to discredit the Barkhane force. It seems coordinated. It is representative of multiple information attacks French soldiers have faced for several months,” it said.

France, the US and others have accused Wagner mercenaries of deploying in Mali as Paris winds down its almost decade-long military operation in the west African country.

Mali’s military-dominated government has denied the accusations and said the Russians in the country were military instructors.

France officially handed control of the Gossi base to the Malian army on Tuesday as part of its withdrawal announced in February.

The French general staff warned about information warfare following the pullout from the base, which hosted 300 French soldiers.

Spokesperson Pascal Ianni said a report had been compiled establishing the state of play to protect France against potential accusations, including arming terrorists and committing exactions.
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www.theguardian.com

France says Russian mercenaries staged ‘French atrocity’ in Mali

Army says it filmed mercenaries burying bodies to falsely accuse France of leaving behind mass graves
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Voiko Wagnerin nimittää terroristijärjestöksi?
 
Edit: siirsin Ukraina ketjuun Wagnerin tappiot Ukrainassa.
 
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