Mali Severs Diplomatic Relations With Ukraine

Help by Proxy Mali Mali severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine this week over allegations Kyiv was involved in an attack by separatist rebels late last month that killed dozens of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group, Radio Free Europe reported. On July 25, rebels led by the Tuareg minority group attacked a military camp in the northeast commune of Tinzaouatene, near the Algerian border. The armed groups claimed they killed 47 Malian troops and 84 Wagner fighters during the three-day battle. Mali’s military junta said it suffered a “large number” of deaths. Shortly after the rebels’ announcement, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, said on Ukrainian television that the whole world was aware that the rebels “had received the necessary data that allowed them to carry out their operation against the Russian war criminals.” Yusov did not explicitly confirm whether Kyiv was involved. But on Sunday, Mali’s military government accused Ukraine of violating its sovereignty and supporting terrorism. Officials explained that Yusov “admitted Ukraine’s involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups,” according to Radio France Internationale. The diplomatic spat comes as Mali is dealing with a long-running insurgency led by Tuareg and Islamist groups. The military rulers, led by Col. Assimi Goita, seized power through coups in 2020 and 2021, and have shifted Mali’s alliances from its former colonial ruler, France, to Russia. The Malian government has employed Russian forces for military support but has countered allegations that those troops are Wagner mercenaries. In a related diplomatic move, Senegal summoned Ukraine’s ambassador this week over a Facebook post from the Ukrainian embassy, which expressed support for the Tuareg rebels. The Tuaregs are a traditionally nomadic Berber ethnic group living in parts of the western Sahara, including northern Mali. Many Tuaregs have historically complained of persecution by the Malian military government. The Malian military has accused the Tuaregs of cooperating with Islamist groups, but the rebels behind the July 25 assault countered that they had fought alone “exclusively from the beginning to the end.”