Dozens of Wagner mercenaries were killed and a Russian helicopter was destroyed in an ambush by al-Qaeda-allied rebels in Mali.
Nikita Fedyanin, the editor and owner of the Grey Zone Wagner Telegram channel and a leading Kremlin propagandist, was also killed in the attack in the Sahara Desert.
Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-linked group, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Wagner convoy near the desert town of Tinzawatene on the border with Algeria.
In one video, an Arab man, who appears to be a commander, can be seen inspecting a captured vehicle as Tuareg fighters, wearing flowing robes, turbans and sunglasses, celebrate.
Through a Telegram channel, JNIM said: “Jihadists used several powerful IEDs to stop the convoy,” and the ambush killed “50 Wagner mercenaries and 10 Malian soldiers”.
“The militants finished off some of the wounded. Among the bodies of the military, men of European appearance are clearly distinguishable,” it said.
Footage across social media shows dozens of bodies in camouflage uniforms strewn across the sand. Some of the dead wore Orthodox crosses around their necks.
In one photo, the wreckage of a helicopter lies in between the ruins of mud houses, and in another a military truck appears to have been up-ended.
Further footage shows a Tuareg fighter taunting a half-naked Russian-speaking fighter. A rebel commander later offered to send Wagner prisoners, including a senior commander, to Ukraine to help its “struggle for justice and freedom”.
Fedyanin had been travelling with the convoy when he was killed in the attack, according to reports.
In his last message on the Grey Zone, Fedyanin posted photographs of heavily armed Wagner fighters posing in front of a burning tree in the desert above the sardonic caption: “It’s hot in Africa, literally and figuratively.”
Fedyanin had complained earlier this month that organising convoys across the desert was difficult with local allies, who he described as unreliable.
“It is sometimes difficult to organise convoys with allies due to, let’s say, their mentality,” he said. “In the Middle East and Africa, locals live a leisurely life.”
Anastasia Kashevarova, a Wagner cheerleader and military blogger with 250,000 subscribers, corroborated the attack.
According to Ms Kashevarova, the badly equipped Wagner convoy with poorly trained soldiers was lured into the ambush after leaving Tinzawatene by a small group of rebel fighters used as bait.
“They chased them and were drawn into the ambush. The number of enemies greatly exceeded ours. Almost all of our men were killed,” she said.
Many experienced fighters quit Wagner after the rebellion in 2023 when command of the unit was subverted to the Russian Ministry of Defence, Ms Kashevarova said. Since then the standard of the group has weakened significantly.
The Kremlin has been sending arms and mercenaries to fuel wars and prop up its allies in Africa for more than a decade and it is blamed for encouraging a series of coups against democratically elected leaders across the region.
This leverage in Africa has become more important to the Kremlin since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as it sees the continent as another theatre to challenge Western dominance.
The US has said that Wagner forces have been deployed in Mali since 2020 to prop up a military junta.
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