The main jihadist alliance in the Sahel is detaining a Russian member of the private military company Wagner, who it claims has been “captured” in central Mali on behalf of that movement.
A first for GSM
This is the first time that the al-Qaeda-affiliated support group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM) has announced the arrest of a Russian engaged on the front lines of the fight against jihad in Mali. However, GSIM has not presented any evidence to support its announcement, which was made via a press release on Sunday night.
Military-led since 2020, Mali has made massive use of alleged “trainers” from Russia to support its army, while Paris and Washington have regularly denounced the presence of the private group’s “mercenaries” in the country. Allegations firmly denied by Bamako.
A recording in early April
It was “in the first week of April” that GSIM claims to have captured “a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the Ségou region” in central Mali. “These murderous forces joined the Malian army in a parachute operation at a market in the village of Moura, where they confronted several mujahideen before surrounding the place for five days, killing hundreds of innocent civilians,” adds the GSIM press release.
This city was the scene of a controversial operation by the Malian army in late March. According to the authorities in Bamako, Malian soldiers “neutralized” 203 jihadists there, but the NGO Human Rights Watch accuses members of the Malian armed forces with the help of foreign fighters to have executed 300 civilians there. Since then, the UN mission in Mali (Minusma) has unsuccessfully asked the Malian authorities for permission to travel there to investigate the events.