Camera shots showed them lying at the desert temperature – six or seven bodies, perhaps more. Wet red spots in the sand and property scattered across the scene were signs of what happened. When the camera turned back and forth, a pair of jeans caught in the sand, curiously without its owner.

It was February in northern Mali. According to what was reported, the group that was lying in the sand was returning from a wedding in the Gao region when they were attacked, not by armed groups, but was claimed by the Russian financial army and mercenaries in the Wagner Group. At least 20 people were killed in two cars, including children and the elderly.

Mali’s military government promised, in a rare move “Scheduled” The soldiers claimed that they participated in the deaths as a cry of installed rights groups. After weeks, there are no results yet. Analysts were not surprised – saying that the accident was only one of several civilian killings reported by state forces in the insecure West African country. The financial army has always been accused Violations Against civilians, now the Russian fighters, who have achieved in the country in the wake of the decrease in the French military presence, build a similar reputation.

“The most surprising difference with the former military presence of France is the harsh strategy of Wagner, which is characterized by brutal violence against civilians,” by comparing the Russian fighters with the French forces that had the same main support in favor of French groups before that before that. Out of the country In 2021 when Bamako and Paris fell.

Mali has since sacked a mission to preserve a unified peace 11,000 men, and has turned exclusively to Russian paramilitary forces. The Vagner forces were almost immediately monitored in the enemy’s lands when they were deployed in 2022 and were accused by cooperation rights groups in the civil “massacres” alongside the state forces and the pro -government ethnic combat groups. However, analysts say that since August 2023, after the death of the founder of Wagner Yivini Briguzin, it seems that the fighters have increased their participation in Mali and expand their operations – at the expense of the lives of civilians.

Bamako is eager to weaken al -Qaeda -related armed groups and ISIL (ISIS) and target villagers in the north by seeing sympathizers with them. But the battles with the Tuareg groups, some of which are fighting for the state of separation from “Azwad”, have become a major axis, and they woke up to a decad -long independence war in the north.

It is believed that travelers in the February convoy were Tariq.

The troubled Mali past

Between 1000 and 1500 Russian Fagner fighters on the financial front lines, which is the main active battlefield of the group in the region. Wagner soldiers are similarly present in the Republic of Central Africa and Sudan.

Since 2023, Russia has sought to control the group directly.

Some experts say that Moscow is keen to avoid being a strong Wagner as it was under ProgazhinWho organized a rebellion embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior defense officials a few months before his death.

Since then, the Russian defense authorities have brought the African classification mark in the Africa band. But in Mali, the fighters continued to get to know themselves as “Wagner”, says analysts who watch the recipient channels.

The Mali crisis began in 2012, when the coalition of separatist separatists collectively took control of the coordination of the Azawad movements (CMA) in three northern cities – Timbocto, Kidal and Gao, referred to the independent state of Azawad, and divided Mali into two.

The elegant government then requested assistance from the French army and the United Nations. The two powers managed to restore some of the rebel lands. In 2015, the rebels and BAMAKO signed a fragile peace deal that gave Tuareg separatists some autonomy.

However, low -level attacks by CMA continued. Armed groups such as Al-Nasr-backed Al-Qaeda, Wall-Mostoline (JNIM) group and the ISIS company in the Sahara (ISGS), which sometimes cooperated with CMA, has grown in power, attack and taxes on civilians, and seizing the ground. in 2020The army, which was riding a wave of popular anger in the government -backed government, seized power.

France condemned the coup, pledging not to work with a military government. Analysts also notice that Paris was not willing to tamper with the Tuareg deal that they helped secure, a deal that the army was especially keen to get rid of it because they considered it a threat. Then the combat groups were forced to search elsewhere for support.

“It was nothing but the Wagner forces that were ready to help restore the north,” said Antonio Gistosi, a researcher at the UK Research Center, RUSI. He said that the group is particularly known among the international mercenary clothes because it is delicious for the high -risk war, such as the tactics of the fighters required in the remote Sahili lands.

He said: “The priority of the financial government was always the north because they felt that these men got a lot of autonomy, and they did not like their comfort with the French.”

Proof of its value

The fighting was continuing in Mali when Briguztten died in a plane crash in late 2023. Some analysts expected that Wagner would significantly reduce its operations in West Africa, where the Russian government rearranged unity. About 100 fighters from Burkina Faso were called to Ukraine in late 2023, and they raised these speculation.

Gistozi said that Wagner’s future was not clear for several months. Mali was unwilling to deal with a military force that was primarily under the control of the Russian government. Moscow also torn off: on the one hand, it was cautious about the group and did not want to return to its previous strength; On the other hand, its closure means that Moscow has lost access to the coast, as it has gained a major impact, not to mention millions of dollars in security payments.

In the end, a compromise was reached, and Rusi expert said: Wagner will remain in the fighting, and Russian military officials will supervise non -combat deployment, such as training and equipment. The Russian army is deployed in similar roles in Burkina Faso and Niger.

Analysts say Wagner, led by Ivan Alexandrovich, has been pressured to prove that he could provide him despite internal disturbances, indicating his double combat activities since then. In the last quarter of 2023, after the direct seizure of Russia to the group, Wagner’s activities in Mali compared to the previous quarter, according to the analysis by Conflict Monitor Access. This trend continued in 2024.

“What Wagner wants to do, no one else,” said Gistozi. Russian fighters are active in remote parts of northern Mali, near the Algerian border, where there are little air support or medical evacuation capabilities. He said it was a situation that most mercenary groups will feel, but Vagner fighters are particularly contained, and like other mercenaries, violent.

Installation violations

With the help of Wagner, a financial army made great gains against the rebels.

In late 2023, the government coalition regained control of Kidal. In February 2024, government forces also regained the golden mine, the largest craft golden mine in the north, which was controlled by armed groups and Azawad rebels. Government air attacks also killed high -level rebel leaders.

This success has come at the expense of the lives of civilians, as the military forces, Wagner forces, and the pro -government combat groups increase military operations. As armed groups killed about 400 people in total in 2024, Wagner and the financial army were killed more than 900 people, according to Acled.

Civilians flee from northern Mali to Mauritania with horror tales of “white men in masks,” according to Washington Post reports. Experts tell women looking for experimental and abuse, beheading, burning people alive, and destroying the entire societies.

Human Rights Watch revealed in a December report that between May and December, the financial army and the Russian forces “killed at least 32 civilians, including 7 in a drone blow, 4 others were forcibly disappeared, and at least 100 homes were burned in military operations in cities and villages in the center and northern Mali.”

JNIM and ISG rights groups also accused dozens of civilian deaths in the same time frame.

French forces, when they were in Mali, were not without mistakes. A French air strike in January 2021 killed 19 civilians who participated in a wedding. A financial army is routinely involved in civilian deaths.

Wagner and the financial army were also exposed. Last July, The largest coalition has suffered a defeat so far, when an ambush unit was subjected to a joint force of CMA fighters and armed groups in northern Tenzoune. Dozens of Wagner soldiers died or captured.

Mali, in the wake of, Blame Ukraine To provide intelligence support for Tuareg to return to Russia. It also cut ties with Kyiv.

Experts say Wagner is currently, despite its military setbacks, it seems that Wagner plans to keep Moscow and Bamako happy.

“It is a relatively low -cost participation that brings money, minerals and geopolitical influence,” said Joyvi, a researcher of the Cliningell Institute.

“At the present time, it is reasonable that Russia will continue to continue to benefit from Wagner and the African Legion to spread its influence on the coast in one way or another,” he added.