Posted on 01/08/2022 9:45:29 AM PST by BenLurkin
Mali’s army spokesperson has said Russian soldiers have deployed to the northern city of Timbuktu to train Malian forces at a base vacated by French troops last month amid persistent insecurity in a country where large swaths of territory are out of the government’s control.
The Malian government said late last year that “Russian trainers” had arrived in the country, but Bamako and Moscow have so far provided few details on the deployment, including on how many soldiers are involved or the Russian troops’ precise mission.
On December 23, a group of Western countries led by former colonial power France, which in 2013 intervened militarily to help push back advancing armed groups that threatened to seize the whole of Mali, sharply criticised what they said was the deployment of Russian mercenaries working for the controversial Wagner Group.
Mali’s government has denied this, saying the Russian troops are in the country as part of a bilateral agreement.
The withdrawal of French troops from Timbuktu, a city they helped to recapture from al-Qaeda fighters in 2013, is part of a significant drawdown of a previously 5,000-strong task force in West Africa’s Sahel region. The French government said it would refocus its military efforts on neutralising rebel operations, and strengthening and training local armies.
The decision came amid mounting political instability in Mali, where Colonel Assimi Goita carried out two coups in less than a year before being sworn in as the country’s interim president. The military-dominated government initially committed to holding elections by the end of February 2022, but has now proposed a transition period lasting between six months and five years.
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
Good luck with all that.
"Dude, we got deployed all the way out to friggin' Timbuktu!"
Seizing on the opportunity to exploit a vacancy in the White House, the Russians are on the move. Another term by Brandon, or a term of Kamala the Cackler, and they will be on our doorstep. Expect a nuclear war, or learn to speak Russian.
What do they have there that’s worth fighting over?
They got sent to Timbuktu, but their sister unit got deployed to Bhumfuhc, Egypt.
Like!
Timbuktu - that’s where you get sent when you really screw up 🤪
According to in-depth news:
https://www.indepthnews.net/index.php/the-world/russia/4965-collective-
sanctions-isolating-mali-in-the-sahel-sahara-as-russia-rides-the-wave-of-anticolonialism
Now that’s a One-Hit Wonder.
.
Are Russia and China going to split Africa between themselves?
that was sure FAST
So the French troops intervening in Mali was fine, but Russian troops going into Mali at the invitation of the Mali government to fight the same terrorists are “mercenaries"?
The French have been colonialists in Africa for a very long time. The Russians have not.
You mean like the British, The French and the Portuguese did before them?
The answer is no.
Nobody is going to “split up” Africa again. Unless they want plenty of pain.
Thanks. Interesting article.
My daughter was in Mali in 1992. I saw photos...it was a desolate place, and very poor. The heat was unbearable.
I don’t know why she went there. She was in her adventurous twenties.
Mali, the ass end of nowhere, is also the gateway to Burkina Fasso. And vice-versa.
They couldn’t be any worse than King Leopold and the Belgians.
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