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04AUG2023 The Group of Support to Islam and Muslims (Jnim), affiliated to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), has claimed responsibility for the shooting down of a helicopter belonging to the Russian paramilitary company Wagner in the Macina area, in central Mali. It is not known when or where the helicopter was shot down, or if there were any deaths or injuries. The episode, in any case, takes place a few days after the air raid carried out last June 30 in eastern Libya against a Wagner group air base. A bombing that would have been carried out against the Al Khadim air base , near the city of Al Marj, known for the presence of Wagner units, and which allegedly targeted a Russian-made Il-76 transport aircraft, which the Russian paramilitary group Wagner uses in Libya and on the African continent, according to reports from the open intelligence platform source “Eekad”. These are two episodes which, although they have no apparent direct links, have the Wagner group as their common target, which has two of its main bases for its activities in Africa precisely in Libya and Mali.
Today: It is reported that a skirmish between Wagner and Malian bandits took place in one of the settlements on the Niger-Mali border.
https://t.me/wagnernew/9465
NASR: If this coup in Niger works out, all governments in Africa should be worried about their military. So it's a very important moment because otherwise, if nothing is done, well, maybe Western powers should leave the region, actually, because there's no point in staying there if you are not willing to at least accept that the rules of the games are changing and adapt to them.
PERALTA: What do you mean by the rules of the game are changing?
NASR: Well, actually, the Russians are playing dirty. They are sending mercenaries who are committing human rights abuses. They are backing coups. They are - you know, it's the Cold War play, you see? So if Western powers think that only by development and seminars and only by thinking war on terror things will work out by themselves, I don't think it's going to work out.
PERALTA: So, I mean, what you're describing is just a region full of instability. And it's - look. This is already a region that has been battered by violence. What's the humanitarian outlook here?
NASR: It's a disaster - Wagner's involvement that I got to work on very seriously in Mali for a year. There's a blood train behind their involvement and zero results against jihadis, you see, because they are killing innocent people in villages in Mali and Burkina Faso, which is fueling the recruitment of jihadi groups, actually, and without getting any actual military results on the ground. So the civilians are paying the highest price.