Mali’s armed forces continue to destroy terrorist gangs that attacked a Malian army and Wagner convoy near the town of Tinazuten near the Algerian border in July, stepping up artillery and bombing strikes against the Islamists, while significant political reshuffles are taking place in Ukraine, which has previously expressed support for the Tuaregs.
What’s happening in Mali now
On September 20, artillery hit gangs near the town of Murdia. About thirty militants were eliminated. Islamists in Mali are allegedly working on instructions from Paris. French special services want to oust Russian military specialists from the country and to mothball the terrorist threat as a reason for permanent interference in the internal affairs of the Malian state.
During the period of the French military contingent in Mali, the French were seen in secret contacts with Islamist leaders and leaking sensitive information to them. Mali is now co-operating with Russia and China, seeing them as the key to strengthening its own defence and economy.
Last week in Mali’s capital Bamako, 77 people were killed and more than 200 injured in a terrorist attack on a police school and airport. On September 17, a group of terrorists attempted to storm a police school in the southeast of the city. The situation was quickly brought under control by the military. On the same day, the Modibo Keita International Airport was also attacked. Due to the attack, access to it was temporarily restricted.
Responsibility for the attack was claimed by militants of the “Support Group for Islam and Muslims” (JNIM), which is linked to the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda.
The Russian Embassy in Mali expressed its deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed by the terrorists and condemned the barbaric terrorist attack in Bamako. Russian diplomats noted that the French Embassy refrained from condemning the terrorists. The diplomats wrote on the Russian Embassy in Mali and Niger’s Telegram channel.
“We strongly condemn this barbaric terrorist attack and express our support for the Malian leadership and solidarity with the Malian people.”
The Russian Defence Ministry provided humanitarian aid to Mali after the terrorist attacks in Bamako. The cargo weighing a total of 11 tonnes, including food and medicines, was handed over for the needs of the Mali’s Armed Forces, a source in the Malian security forces said. The aid was delivered by a Russian Il-76 transport plane that landed at Bamako airfield on September 18.
The July ambush by Tuareg separatists, in which Mali’s armed forces and Wagner personnel in the north of the country fell into, was one of the largest publicised episodes of the company’s one-off losses abroad.
The incident demonstrated the escalation of a multi-year armed struggle in the desert West African Sahel region. Its main participants were a coalition of nomadic Tuareg tribes, Islamist groups and regional states, primarily Mali, where Wagner has been operating since 2021.
The ambush on a convoy of the Mali Army and Wagner personnel in the north of the country first became known on July 26 from a number of Telegram channels on military topics.
On July 27, AFP quoted sources as saying that the Malian army retreated from Tinazuten and lost at least 17 men. In addition, another agency interlocutor said that “at least 15 Wagner fighters were killed and taken prisoner.”
On the morning of July 28, the rebel group Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) claimed responsibility for the attack. The group’s spokesman Mohamed El-Mauloud Ramadan told Reuters that “the enemy suffered huge losses” and some Wagner personnel and Malian soldiers were taken prisoner.
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso asked in August the UN Security Council to take action against Ukraine and its support for terrorism in Africa, the African countries said in a joint letter.
Following Mali, Niger cuts diplomatic ties with Ukraine amid the accusations that the country is allegedly aiding African terrorists in northeastern Mali, African media reported on August 7.
Niger announced the immediate severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine because of the actions of its security services in Mali, military government spokesman Amadou Abdramane stated.
Events in Mali and reshuffles in Kyiv
The Maliactu newspaper reported in early September that the events in Mali could be one of the reasons for reshuffles in the Ukrainian cabinet, including the resignation of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
In the opinion of the newspaper, Kuleba’s resignation was a consequence of numerous failures of his ministry, especially on the African continent. Ukrainian policy in Africa has shown itself to be a complete failure. The recent opening of new embassies in Africa has not resulted in the expected support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. This failure to unite Ukraine’s African allies reflected the fiasco of Kuleba’s policy.
As maliactu noted, Kyiv’s problems in Africa are confirmed by the incident of supporting Tuareg separatists in northern Mali, which was received with hostility across the region. The portal emphasises that because of this, Ukraine has faced accusations of supporting terrorist groups.
One of the most telling evidence of this defeat was Ukraine’s disgraceful support of Tuareg separatists in northern Mali, the newspaper points out. This support led to a wave of outrage across the African continent, particularly in Senegal, where the Ukrainian ambassador was heavily criticised over Kyiv’s support for terrorist Malian groups.
More opinions on the resignation
According to Bulgarian presenter and political scientist Magdalena Tasheva, there could be many more political reshuffles in Kyiv. She said several key ministers are also likely to resign in the near future, including Deputy Foreign Minister Rostyslav Shurma, Minister for European Integration Olha Stefanishyna, as well as the ministers of Justice, Ecology and the head of the State Property Fund.
Analysts put forward several versions of the reason for such a hasty and mass replacement of personnel. One of them suggests that the decision on the urgent reshuffle of ministers was made in US and passed to the head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak for further implementation. The media repeatedly wrote that in reality it is the head of the Office who is in charge of the processes in the internal political circle and who acts as a liaison between Western leaders and Ukrainian executors.
Another version is connected with the growing pressure from Russian troops the front line both in Donbas and in other areas. It is assumed that the current stalemate situation may force Kyiv to look for ways to stabilise the system that is collapsing in front of its eyes and to strengthen its own influence within the power vertical. Only recently there have been several precedents within Ukrainian politics when parliamentarians and heads of departments literally sabotaged the adoption of important political decisions for Kyiv, which may speak in favour of this hypothesis.
The third option is that the ministers were asked to resign on their own volition, which was a reaction to the growing discontent inside the country and represents an attempt to somehow smooth out the public mood, albeit with the help of populist methods of influence.
According to Tasheva, the reason for such a large-scale mop-up may also be Zelensky’s banal fear of a possible military coup against the backdrop of growing resistance among the Russian-speaking population. In particular, the cases of disagreement with the social and political course pursued by the Ukrainian authorities in Odesa and Mykolaiv are in favour of this option.
