Tuareg Insurgents in Mali Cause Losses to Both Government and Military Troops

During a two-day battle close to the Algerian border, Tuareg rebels in northern Mali claimed on Saturday to have killed and injured a number of government soldiers and Russian Wagner Group mercenaries. Ten more soldiers were injured, and two soldier deaths were verified by the Mali military.

The CSP-PSD rebel movement announced on Saturday that during the clashes in Tinzaouaten on Thursday and Friday, they had taken control of trucks, tankers, and armored cars.

They also claimed to have damaged a chopper that went down hundreds of kilometers away in Kidal.

The Mali army confirmed that a Friday routine patrol in Kidal resulted in a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of two troops and injured ten others.

Videos circulated on social media displayed the lifeless bodies of multiple Caucasian individuals and Mali soldiers next to damaged automobiles.

An ambush near the Algerian border claimed the lives of about twenty members of the Wagner group, according to reports from Russian military bloggers.

Regardless of what the bloggers claim, the information they post can still not be independently verified.

The pro-independence CSP-DPA coalition’s spokesperson, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, claimed in a press release that after a bloody two days of fighting close to Tinzawaten hamlet, the “rebels successfully defeating the Malian army and Russian mercenaries.”