Wagner’s counterinsurgency operation in Mali has been ongoing since late 2021, when the regime of Malian Col. Assimi Goïta struck a deal with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian private military company. Yet, in a surprising turn of events, in the days following the attack, another actor announced that it was involved: Ukraine.

On July 27, a convoy of Russia’s Wagner Group was ambushed near Tinzaouatene, a rural town on Mali’s northern border with Algeria. In the ensuing battle with both a primarily Tuareg irredentist armed group (the Cadre Stratégique Permanent, or CSP) and al Qaeda-linked jihadis (Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM), Wagner suffered its largest loss in Africa to date; the CSP claims to have killed 84 Wagner soldiers as well as 47 soldiers from the Malian Armed Forces.

On July 27, a convoy of Russia’s Wagner Group was ambushed near Tinzaouatene, a rural town on Mali’s northern border with Algeria. In the ensuing battle with both a primarily Tuareg irredentist armed group (the Cadre Stratégique Permanent, or CSP) and al Qaeda-linked jihadis (Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, or JNIM), Wagner suffered its largest loss in Africa to date; the CSP claims to have killed 84 Wagner soldiers as well as 47 soldiers from the Malian Armed Forces.

Wagner’s counterinsurgency operation in Mali has been ongoing since late 2021, when the regime of Malian Col. Assimi Goïta struck a deal with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Russian private military company. Yet, in a surprising turn of events, in the days following the attack, another actor announced that it was involved: Ukraine.

Although details remain scarce, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency claims to have provided Malian rebels with “necessary information,” (although the statement also suggested that the Ukrainians provided resources beyond information) “which enabled a successful military operation against Russian war criminals.” The move is likely a bid to gain additional Western support for Kyiv’s ongoing war with Russia.

Today, Mali finds itself at the center of overlapping civil wars involving separatists, ethnic militias, jihadis, and international actors.