Mali jihadists claim capture of mercenary

BAMAKO - Mali’s biggest jihadist coalition says it has captured a Russian fighter with Wagner, the Kremlin-linked security firm allegedly hired by the country’s military junta.

The claim was made in a statement sent to AFP late Sunday by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), although it provided no evidence to support the assertion.

“In the first week of April, (we) captured a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the Segou region in central Mali,” the GSIM said.

The group said the Russians had taken part in a massacre in Moura, central Mali, last month - an event whose outlines have been reported by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“These murderous forces participated with the Malian army in an airdrop operation on a market in the village of Moura, where they confronted several mujahideen before encircling this locality for five days and killing hundreds of innocent civilians,” it said.

It is the first time the GSIM, an Al-Qaeda-linked alliance and the biggest jihadist network in the Sahel, has announced the capture of a Wagner operative.

In another operation, the GSIM statement said “the mercenaries” carried out two parachute drops at Bandiagara in central Mali.

Jihadist fighters seized weapons “from the mercenaries, who fled”, it said.

The United States, France and others say Mali has hired Wagner to help its armed forces, which are struggling to roll back a decadelong jihadist insurgency.

Mali’s military-dominated government says the Russians in the country are military instructors. It has also started receiving combat helicopters and radar from Russia.

HRW says Malian soldiers and white foreign soldiers, who did not speak French, executed 300 civilians in Moura between 27-31 March.