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May 26, 2023 - 3:20pm
Even as Russia’s controversial Wagner Group private military company pulls out, victorious, from the shattered ruins of Bakhmut, their easier and far more lucrative operations in Africa are attracting increased international scrutiny. Yesterday, the US State Department announced that it is sanctioning Wagner’s local commander alongside two Malian army officers for alleged command of a massacre of 500 Malian villagers in March last year.
According to a recently-released UN report, during a days-long operation in the village of Moura in Mali’s troubled central Mopti region — home to a jihadist insurgency dominated by the mostly ethnic Fulani pastoralist Katibat Macina group — villagers were rounded up and interrogated by both Malian and “white” forces. Women were raped and hundreds of men summarily executed.
Though the report does not explicitly mention either Wagner or Russia, Wagner is the only likely candidate. As the Guardian already established last year, Malian army documents revealed the presence of “Russian instructors” on “mixed missions” with the Malian army at the time of the massacre, and “Wagner were deployed near Moura at the time, and took part in other operations in which many civilians were killed.”
The tragedy in one remote Malian village is downstream of rifts at the highest levels of international diplomacy. Following years of deteriorating relations, France pulled its troops out of the country following 2021’s military coup. This left Russia to fill the gap, and Mali to jump headlong into Moscow’s orbit.
While outcompeting France in its own postcolonial backyard is a humiliation for Paris, it’s also a headache for Washington, keen to limit Russia’s growing influence in the developing world. America’s argument, as expressed by the State Department’s Victoria Nuland last year, is that, far from solving Mali’s security woes, “the Malian junta has invited in Wagner and terrorism has become significantly worse,” adding that “incidents of terror” had increased by 30% over the previous six months as civilians enraged by human rights abuses turn their support towards jihadist rebels.
This argument has impeccable logic according to Western counterinsurgency or COIN doctrine, in which the key to defeating insurgencies is to address civilian grievances, but evidently Mali’s government prefer Russia’s more aggressive approach. Western COIN failed in Afghanistan after all, whereas Russia’s Wagner-led counterinsurgency campaign in Syria, though brutal, has effectively crushed the Sunni rebellion.
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SubscribeMilitary juntas are not generally renowned for their approach to human rights and humanity in general. This is regardless of whom their backers are – Pinochet’s Chile wasn’t famed for its liberalism.
Military juntas are not generally renowned for their approach to human rights and humanity in general. This is regardless of whom their backers are – Pinochet’s Chile wasn’t famed for its liberalism.
ah .. Mali.. another thriving example of African success!
ah .. Mali.. another thriving example of African success!
Good article although too much time is spent on the atrocities committed. We get it. The trouble for liberal democracy is that brutal tactics work. Syria, Iran, China, North Korea and Russia all use excessive force against their own citizens (let alone others) and it keeps the ‘regime’ in place. Sagar Enjeti on Breaking Points – pretty middle of the road unlike his co-host – made a really good point the other day in regards to N Korea: for about half a century we have been confidently predicting the fall of the regime there but they are still in power and have developed nuclear weapons that could wipe out Hawaii or LA. It used to be a given that such an autocratic and nihilistic government would fall. At the moment would you want to bet against North Korea falling vs the break up of the UK or USA?
What the author doesn’t mention is that for years French forces have been accused of war crimes over tens of people dying in raids. Those same human rights people turn a blind eye to Russian mercenaries doing the same. It may well have originally come from a good place to call out crimes committed by western forces but when the comparison is hundreds of people in one attack (listed above) you get a feeling that, hey, maybe the French weren’t the worst thing to have happened to the Sahel. On the flip side the author says that terrorism has grown under Russian aid but fails to mention the Islamist insurgencies in the region that the French failed to stop. Remember when Timbuktu was being smashed up? Another article where the interesting part is confined to the last half of a short artcle (from: “While outcompeting France…”). Get him to write a proper article starting from there. He’s one of the best writers on here.
more evidence that Africa is centuries behind in every aspect.
I agree with your point of view and history proves it. Tyrants keep hold of power by use of brutal force. How else has an Islamic autocracy such as Iran managed to keep hold of power? Every single uprising is cruelly repressed and ring leaders executed or flung into desperate prisons for many years. Meanwhile, our media, academia etc remain silent but happily and enthusiastically peddle the narrative of Western abuse – much of which I do not deny but it needs to be put in the balance – so that a large majority have little to no idea of the atrocities committed by historical figures such as Mao or Pol Pot or current tyrants but will castigate the white west and blame them for all the sorrows of the world as if all other cultures and nations were innocent.
Mao and Pol Pot were both a product of German and French inspiration. Karl Marx and French leftist ‘intellectuals’
Mao and Pol Pot were both a product of German and French inspiration. Karl Marx and French leftist ‘intellectuals’
more evidence that Africa is centuries behind in every aspect.
I agree with your point of view and history proves it. Tyrants keep hold of power by use of brutal force. How else has an Islamic autocracy such as Iran managed to keep hold of power? Every single uprising is cruelly repressed and ring leaders executed or flung into desperate prisons for many years. Meanwhile, our media, academia etc remain silent but happily and enthusiastically peddle the narrative of Western abuse – much of which I do not deny but it needs to be put in the balance – so that a large majority have little to no idea of the atrocities committed by historical figures such as Mao or Pol Pot or current tyrants but will castigate the white west and blame them for all the sorrows of the world as if all other cultures and nations were innocent.
Good article although too much time is spent on the atrocities committed. We get it. The trouble for liberal democracy is that brutal tactics work. Syria, Iran, China, North Korea and Russia all use excessive force against their own citizens (let alone others) and it keeps the ‘regime’ in place. Sagar Enjeti on Breaking Points – pretty middle of the road unlike his co-host – made a really good point the other day in regards to N Korea: for about half a century we have been confidently predicting the fall of the regime there but they are still in power and have developed nuclear weapons that could wipe out Hawaii or LA. It used to be a given that such an autocratic and nihilistic government would fall. At the moment would you want to bet against North Korea falling vs the break up of the UK or USA?
What the author doesn’t mention is that for years French forces have been accused of war crimes over tens of people dying in raids. Those same human rights people turn a blind eye to Russian mercenaries doing the same. It may well have originally come from a good place to call out crimes committed by western forces but when the comparison is hundreds of people in one attack (listed above) you get a feeling that, hey, maybe the French weren’t the worst thing to have happened to the Sahel. On the flip side the author says that terrorism has grown under Russian aid but fails to mention the Islamist insurgencies in the region that the French failed to stop. Remember when Timbuktu was being smashed up? Another article where the interesting part is confined to the last half of a short artcle (from: “While outcompeting France…”). Get him to write a proper article starting from there. He’s one of the best writers on here.