Wagner Group attempts to assume control over UN bases in Mali

The Malian army and Wagner Group are committing atrocities against civilians as they attempt to assume control over UN bases in northern Mali, which will likely strengthen al Qaeda–linked militants’ local support in the area.

A large Malian army and Wagner Group convoy departed from Gao on October 2 to secure bases that the UN mission is vacating in mid-October, Caliber.Az reports US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Malian and Wagner soldiers have massacred civilians for perceived links to separatist Tuareg rebels and Salafi-jihadi insurgents that have harassed the convoy since it departed.

Al Qaeda’s local affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wa al Muslimeen (JNIM) has used Wagner atrocities in other parts of the country to improve its local support and has repeatedly offered to ally with separatist groups and northern communities in the Kidal region as a protector from Wagner Group in the Malian army.

JNIM will likely leverage its local support and legitimacy to peacefully co-opt leadership in rebel-controlled areas of northern Mali, which would result in de facto JNIM control and shadow governance, analysts say.

JNIM control in northern Mali would enable the group to pose a greater transnational threat, and the group could use its inroads with Tuareg groups to leverage human networks in other countries.