Russia’s Wagner says it has found the bodies of soldiers who were killed in Mali

Russia’s Wagner military group said that its soldiers had found the bodies of its soldiers who had been killed in a battle in Mali in July with Tuareg rebels and Islamists in the middle of a sandstorm.

Mali has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for years now. It started with a Tuareg separatist revolt in the north of the Sahel country and was led by the military in coups in 2020 and 2021.

Wagner said in July that it lost a lot of people in the battle, which it fought with the Mali army, but he didn’t give many details.

It was successful to return the bodies of our brothers who bravely fought Islamists in July 2024, even though they were outnumbered many times over, Wagner said in a rare Telegram message late Tuesday night.

The July battle loss showed how dangerous it is for Russian mercenary forces that work for military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. These juntas are trying to keep separatists and strong branches of Islamic State and Al Qaeda in check in the dry Sahel area.

In a statement, Mali’s army said that it had also found the bodies of its troops in the area where the July ambush happened.

Wagner said that the rebel group had taken back the bodies of its fighters, but a spokesman for the group rejected this.

“It’s not true, there are no Wagner bodies there,” Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane told Reuters on behalf of the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security, and Development, a Tuareg group.

Soon after the fight, the rebels moved Wagner’s body away from the scene, he said on social media on Sunday.

This is the latest in a string of contradictory statements. Last week, Wagner said that two of its fighters captured in Mali had died, but the rebels said they were still living.

Wagner said that its troops had gone through a desert area in north Mali near Tinzaouaten that was “crammed with Azawad militants.”

“The bodies of our fallen brothers will return to the homeland,” he said. “We do not leave our own, and all of them – dead or alive – will be returned home.”