In Mali, a jihadist group announces that it has captured a Russian mercenary from the Wagner group

Two enemies of France in Mali, one facing the other.

The Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel and linked to Al-Qaeda, announced on Monday that it was detaining a Russian member of the Wagner militia.

The private army, financed by the Russian oligarch Evgueni Prigojine and won over to the cause of Vladimir Putin, is notably suspected of having participated in the massacre of Boutcha, in Ukraine, at the end of March or the beginning of April.

The GSIM circulated a press release during the night from Sunday to Monday.

"During the first week of April, (we) captured a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the region of Ségou", in the center of Mali, indicates the text in Arabic.

This is the first time that the GSIM has announced the capture of a Russian engaged in the fight against jihadists in the country.

“Hundreds of innocent civilians” killed

According to him, Wagner's "lethal forces" "participated with the Malian army in a parachute operation in a market in the village of Moura, where they confronted several mujahideen before encircling this locality for five days and killing hundreds of innocent civilians.

According to the same press release, “the mujahideen also faced two parachute operations carried out by mercenaries above the cliffs of Bandiagara, 70 km from Sévaré (in central Mali).

The mujahideen succeeded in confiscating weapons from the mercenaries who fled”.

Read alsoWagner militia: the mysterious secret army of Vladimir Putin

Since 2012, Mali has been plunged into a deep security crisis that the deployment of foreign forces has not been able to resolve.

Led by the military since August 2020, the country has made massive use of what it presents as "instructors" from Russia while Westerners - Paris and Washington in particular - denounce the presence in the country of "mercenaries" of the group private Russian Wagner.

The Malian colonels in power, they deny.

Moura was the scene at the end of March of a controversial operation by the Malian army.

According to the authorities in Bamako, Malian soldiers "neutralized" 203 jihadists there, but the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses members of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) of having summarily executed 300 civilians there, with the help of foreign fighters.

The UN mission in Mali (Minusma) has since asked the Malian authorities to allow it to go there to investigate in order to shed light on these events.

His request has so far remained a dead letter.