No fewer than 20 civilians, including children, were killed on Sunday by drone strikes in north Mali, where the army and its Russian allies are fighting separatists and jihadists, local sources report.
Separatists attributed the strikes in Tinzaouatene, near Algeria, on “the army of the Malian junta and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group,” with a provisional death toll of 21 civilians, including 11 children.
Tinzaouatene was the location of a dramatic late-July fight in which the Tuareg-led separatists claimed to have decisively defeated the Malian army and Wagner.
Sunday’s strikes “initially targeted a pharmacy, then other strikes followed, targeting human gatherings near the first damage,” said separatist spokesman Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane.
A local lawmaker informed AFP that at least 15 civilians were killed in the drone strikes.
Meanwhile, a local NGO official reported that “at least 20 civilians, including children,” had been murdered in the drone attacks on Sunday, and a retired local official confirmed that at least 20 people had died.
Since gaining power in a 2020 coup, West African military commanders have prioritised retaking the entire country from separatists and jihadist militants linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organisation.
After an eight-year hiatus, conflicts between Bamako and separatists seeking an independent nation restarted in August 2023.
Under Colonel Assimi Goita, the junta severed its longstanding connection with previous colonial power France and turned to Russia instead.
Troops from Russia’s Wagner mercenary outfit were dispatched to the country as a result, though the junta stated they were just there as “instructors.”
But on July 25, the Malian army and its Russian partners were caught in an ambush on the outskirts of Tinzaouatene.
During three days of fierce fighting, separatists claimed to have killed 84 Wagner fighters and 47 Malian soldiers.
The Malian army and Wagner acknowledged substantial losses without providing a precise figure.
