The Russian mercenary group Wagner announced today its departure from Mali after three and a half years of fighting Islamist militants, stating that its mission in the West African nation has been “successfully completed.”
In a Telegram post, the group claimed to have returned all regional centers in the country to the control of the Malian military junta, having pushed back Islamist forces and killed their commanders.
Wagner did not specify the future activities of its members upon their return to Russia.
The announcement follows a series of attacks in recent weeks where rebels claimed to have killed more than 100 Malian soldiers, as well as some Wagner mercenaries. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), an insurgent group in the West African Sahel region, has claimed responsibility for recent violence, including a bomb attack on Malian and Russian soldiers near the capital Bamako on June 4.
Wagner has been operating in Mali since the military, which seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, expelled French and UN forces that had been involved in fighting Islamist insurgents for a decade, replacing them with Russian mercenaries.
However, Wagner’s withdrawal from Mali does not mean the West African country will be without Russian fighters, as the relatively new Russian African Corps reportedly remains in Mali.
