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According to an army document and officials, a Russian national working alongside Malian forces was murdered by a roadside bomb in the heart of the conflict-torn Sahel state on Wednesday.
According to a military letter obtained by AFP, a Malian army unit accompanied by a “Russian advisor” hit an improvised explosive device near the village of Hombori on Tuesday morning.
According to the Malian army report, the Russian died after being evacuated to the central town of Sevare.
The death is the first reported casualty among what are officially characterised as Russian military instructors in Mali.
The army-dominated government of Mali denies the claim.
A medical official in Sevare, who did not want to be identified, confirmed the death and said the guy was in his 30s.
An elected official in central Mali, who also asked to remain anonymous, stated that he had “heard of the killing of a Wagner agent.”
Mali’s army has made no formal remark on the events.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the nation, MINUSMA, expressed “alarm” about claims of human rights violations at Hombori’s weekly market on Tuesday.
The charges include a Malian army operation that was purportedly joined “by a number of foreign soldiers,” according to a tweet sent on Wednesday by the army.
MINUSMA said it had launched an inquiry “to verify the facts” and planned to visit the site soon, urging authorities to “shine light on these events.”
– The United Nations is ‘very concerned.’
Earlier on Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Office expressed “grave concern” that authorities had denied MINUSMA investigators access to Moura, a town in central Mali where an alleged civilian massacre occurred.
Human Rights Watch reported that Malian army and affiliated foreign fighters murdered 300 civilians in late March. The army disputed the accusation and claimed to have killed roughly 200 militants.
It first promised to restore civilian government, but it failed to meet a previous commitment to the West African body ECOWAS to hold elections in February this year, provoking regional sanctions.
The junta’s closeness with Russia has exacerbated tensions with France, a key ally.
After a decade-long war against terrorists, France, which intervened in Mali in 2013, chose to withdraw its military in February.
The deadly conflict in Mali, which began in 2012 and extended to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, has left vast swaths of the country outside of government control.
