By Portia Crowe
DAKAR (Reuters) – A spokesperson for Mali’s Tuareg rebel alliance said it received no external assistance in fighting in late July that dealt a significant blow to Mali’s army and its Wagner partners, nor has it received any help from Ukraine.
The northern rebels in early August said they had killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers over days of fierce fighting in the town of Tinzaouaten near the Algerian border, in what appears to be Wagner’s heaviest defeat since it stepped in two years ago to help the West African country’s military authorities fight insurgent groups.
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency made comments on July 29 that Mali interpreted to mean Ukraine had provided information to the rebels ahead of the fighting.
Days later, Mali said it was cutting diplomatic ties with Ukraine over the remarks.
Ukraine, in a statement by the foreign ministry, said that move was hasty and no evidence had been provided to show Kyiv had played any role in the fighting.
Neighbouring Niger later cut ties with Ukraine, citing the same comments.
“We can clearly say that we received no outside help for the fighting at Tinzaouaten,” Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane of the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) rebel alliance, told Reuters on Wednesday.
Asked whether Ukraine had previously helped the rebel movement, either financially or with training, Ramadane said: “No, we have not received any assistance from Ukraine.”
Neither Mali nor Wagner have said how many troops they lost in the clashes, although in a rare statement on July 29, Wagner said it suffered heavy losses. Malian authorities have also acknowledged severe losses in the battle without giving numbers.
Al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) has claimed it killed 50 Wagner mercenaries and 10 Malian soldiers in an ambush in the same area at the time.
Two security sources said a Malian convoy came under attack from both the separatists and JNIM in remote terrain, but that the extent of coordination between the two groups was unclear.
Tuareg separatists launched a rebellion against the Malian government in 2012 but it was later hijacked by Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The rebels signed a peace agreement with Mali’s government in 2015, but CSP-PSD pulled out of the talks at the end of 2022.
The junta governments of Mali, Niger and neighbouring Burkina Faso – which have all seized power since 2020, promising to quash the jihadist insurgency that has swept the Sahel region – have fostered close defence and diplomatic ties with Russia.
(Reporting by Portia Crowe; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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