PRETORIA, May 29. /TASS/. European-looking servicemen, including Ukrainians, took part in the April attack on Mali, the West African nation’s Bamada news website reported, citing local residents.
According to eyewitnesses, Europeans were fighting alongside Tuareg rebels from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). The sources believe that the attackers’ goal was to seize the country’s capital of Bamako.
A resident of the city of Kidal described the developments that followed the retreat of the Malian army. "FLA guys began destroying and looting everything. But the worst thing was that there were also men in military uniforms who looked like Europeans. Some of them were speaking French, while others were speaking a language that sounded like Russian but not quite. I know Russian, and our partners in the Malian Armed Forces speak Russian. But this was not the case: those people must have been Ukrainians," he said.
In August 2024, Mali severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine over Kiev’s support for terrorists active in the African country. African media outlets regularly report of Ukrainian mercenary presence in the Sahel region, as well as of arms trafficking from Ukraine.
Attack on Mali
On April 25, the two largest radical groups in Mali, specifically Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (affiliated with Al-Qaeda, outlawed in Russia) and the Tuareg rebel formed Azawad Liberation Front, launched a coordinated attack against several strategically important cities and facilities, but by midday Mali’s armed forces and their international allies had regained control and begun counterattack operations.