Al-Qaeda attacked Russia ally in Africa

The “Al-Raid” group “Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam Val-Muslimin” on Tuesday for the first time since 2015 attacked the capital of Mali. This may indicate the strengthening of a group in a country considered one of the allies of Russia in Africa.

Details. The militants attacked the military police school and the air base in Bamako. The attack began at 05:30 in the morning with the shelling of the school, two security officers and an official in the presidential office of Mali told The New Yourk Times (NYT). According to the interlocutors of the publication, after which the attackers went to the air base, which houses the mercenaries of the “PMC Wagner”. There, the militants tried to set fire to a government aircraft used by the country's military leader, Colonel Assimi Goit, fired at the presidential terminal and one of the hangars, and the video and video analyzed by Nyt.

• “Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam Val-Muslim,” announced “Huge losses among people and technology” and “The destruction of many military aircraft”. The ex-employee of the European Union’s security service, who communicated with the Mali military, told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that there are wounded, but no one died. However, two security officers Mali and the doctor of the capital's hospital informed Nyt about several dead and more than 20 hospitalized military. One who died a peaceful resident of Bamako was reported by Reuters, according to which the seller of cigarettes was mistaken for one of the attackers and burned by local residents.

• The group that took responsibility for the attack also stated the murder of Russian military instructors, wrote the Russian Military Channel "Rybar". However, according to his information, this "is not true."

• All the attackers were killed or arrested, the head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Mali Umar Diarra said on the air of state television. Dozens of prisoners, as well as several bodies of killed militants and machine guns, which, according to Diarra, captured the Mali army, fell into the frames.

• The published videos can also be seen by the military with fair skin, which allowed the authors of the Directora 4 channel to suggest that the mercenaries of the “Wagner PMC” participated in the reflection of the attack on the capital of Mali. According to the channel, the Mali military, with the support of Russian mercenaries, managed to capture more than 20 participants in Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam Val-Muslimin.

• Attacks on the capital and other areas of southern Mali indicate that “the rebel movement remains strength, despite the statements of the authorities to stabilize the situation,” said Joe Sigl, director of the African Strategic Research, funded by the Pentagon of the African Center for Strategic Research. According to the organization, in the first half of 2024, militants made 547 attacks in Mali, as a result of which more than 1230 people died.

Context. The conflict in Mali has been continuing since 2011, when, after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, the rebels penetrated the country, Nyt recalls. They captured three cities in the north of the country, and later also invaded Niger and Burkina-Faso. Since 2017, the fighting in these three countries led to the death of about 38 thousand people, writes WSJ.

• In 2020, a military coup occurred in Mali. In 2022, the Khunt who seized power in the country broke military cooperation with France, after which the French troops were withdrawn from Mali.

• Russia placed there about 1,500 mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, which human rights organizations were accused of murders of civilians, including hundreds of people in the village of Moura in 2022, the WSJ publication said.

• Last year, the country's military leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. After that, Mali was visited by the Deputy Minister of Defense Yunus Bek Evkurov. During his visit, the expansion of cooperation in the military industry was announced.

• At the end of July, the Wagner PMC detachment was ambushed, organized by the Tuareg reflectors near the border with Algeria. During the battle, about 50 Russian mercenaries were killed, Nyt writes.