Day: August 15, 2022

A Mali prosecutor says the 49 Ivory Coast soldiers held in Mali since July on accusations of being mercenaries have now been charged with undermining state security.

Mali’s prosecutor in the counterterrorism unit gave the update on the soldiers’ situation. Ivory Coast has been demanding the release of the soldiers since their detention July 10.

The soldiers are charged with “criminal association, attack and conspiracy against the government, undermining the external security of the state, possession, carrying and transportation of weapons of war and complicity in these crimes,” the specialized prosecutor Samba Sissoko said in a statement released Sunday. “Investigations will be carried out in order to establish the truth, identify all possible perpetrators, co-perpetrators and accomplices.”

The Ivorian soldiers were detained upon their arrival in Mali at the airport in Bamako, the capital. They were sent to Mali to secure a building belonging to an airline company that was carrying out a contract with the German contingent of peacekeepers with the United Nations mission in Mali. However, Mali’s ruling junta considers the Ivorian soldiers to be “mercenaries” because they are not directly employed by the U.N. mission and therefore are not “national support elements.”

Tensions between Mali and Ivory Coast have increased since the soldiers were arrested.

Source: Voice of America

Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Mali claimed Monday it had killed four mercenaries from Russia’s private military firm, the Wagner Group, in an ambush around Bandiagara in central Mali.

The media unit for Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), said in a statement its fighters clashed with the mercenaries Saturday in the Mopti region, according to a translation by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist statements.

Wagner has no public representation and could not be reached for comment.

Mali is struggling to stem an Islamist insurgency that took root after a 2012 uprising and has since spread to neighboring countries, killing thousands and displacing millions across West Africa’s Sahel region.

Wagner began supplying hundreds of fighters last year to support the Malian military and has since been accused by human rights groups and local residents of participating in massacres of civilians — accusations it has not responded to.

The Russian government has acknowledged Wagner personnel are in Mali, but the Malian government has described them as instructors from the Russian military rather than private security contractors.

In July, JNIM claimed responsibility for an attack on Mali’s main military base, which it said was a response to governmental collaboration with Wagner.

Source: Voice of America