France Suspends Joint Military Operations With Mali After Coup

France or Wagner isn't even a choice for a sane person.
With France they had a chance of staying alive and free of chosing a religion. With Wagner they will be or forcibly islamized or dead. Nice choice indeed !
 
Did you not read the 'sane' part?
How easy to tell from your chair.
I do not judge people when their life or the life of their family are in balance. Yes several people prefer that frenchs are here to enforce police power againt terrorism better than wagner. Is it a surprise ?
Then How about UK deploying it's troops there , O'Reilly ?
Yes where are UK troops ?
 
How easy to tell from your chair.
I do not judge people when their life or the life of their family are in balance. Yes several people prefer that frenchs are here to enforce police power againt terrorism better than wagner. Is it a surprise ?
That would be the sane choice, but some people have clearly chosen Wagner.

British troops in Africa would be a PR nightmare waiting to happen.
 
Wagner are f*cking up Burkino Faso and Sudan too now. They probably fund the terrorists so that they have a problem to solve and then gain influence.
 
Wagner are f*cking up Burkino Faso and Sudan too now. They probably fund the terrorists so that they have a problem to solve and then gain influence.
In taking control of the Merowe airbase in Sudan, the RSF reportedly got hold of MiGs belonging to the Egyptian air force, which supports the Sudanese army. Egyptian pilots were reportedly captured. This is exactly the casus belli that Egypt has been waiting for to go and put some order in Sudan in a more direct way, or at least to take a little more control over the locals in their management of regional security.

I remind you of this episode:
During a meeting on 13 February 2023 with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, General al-Burhan agreed to the opening of a Russian naval base in Port Sudan and welcomed the deployment of Russian mercenaries from the private military company Wagner alongside the RSF.

In short, President al-Burhan thought he was smarter than the Janjaweed barbarians he thought he was keeping on a leash, and the barbarians in question, led by Vice President Dogolo, made the mistake of attacking the Egyptian air force as well as Burhan's own forces, and so Buhan will have no choice but to get rid of Dogolo and his henchmen, except that he's certainly not going to do that on his own, so he needs someone to help him. Someone like our Egyptian friends from the north for example, who now have a casus belli to do this.
 
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In taking control of the Merowe airbase in Sudan, the RSF reportedly got hold of MiGs belonging to the Egyptian air force, which supports the Sudanese army. Egyptian pilots were reportedly captured. This is exactly the casus belli that Egypt has been waiting for to go and put some order in Sudan in a more direct way, or at least to take a little more control over the locals in their management of regional security.

I remind you of this episode:


In short, President al-Burhan thought he was smarter than the Janjaweed barbarians he thought he was keeping on a leash, and the barbarians in question, led by Vice President Dogolo, made the mistake of attacking the Egyptian air force as well as Burhan's own forces, and so Buhan will have no choice but to get rid of Dogolo and his henchmen, except that he's certainly not going to do that on his own, so he needs someone to help him. Someone like our Egyptian friends from the north for example, who now have a casus belli to do this.
 
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UPDATE:
At least one of Egypt’s MiG-29s has been destroyed on the base, possibly all are either damaged or destroyed. See our complete update with satellite imagery here.
 
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UPDATE:
At least one of Egypt’s MiG-29s has been destroyed on the base, possibly all are either damaged or destroyed. See our complete update with satellite imagery here.
Link doesn't work - fixed below.

Apparently Wagner is interested in the gold resources in Sudan.


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(dec.2022)
Abstract: Over the past year, mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private military company with very close ties to the Kremlin, deployed to Mali—first to Bamako, the capital, then to the central part of the country, then in the east all the way to Gao and Ménaka and in the north to Timbuktu. The arrival of Russian mercenaries hastened the departure of French and European forces. However, the Russian private military company did not deploy capable, disciplined, and well-equipped troops to fill the gap, and its brutal and indiscriminate counterinsurgency efforts are serving as a recruiting tool for the jihadis. A year after the arrival of the Russian mercenaries to Mali, the security situation has worsened. Despite ongoing fighting between al-Qa`ida and the Islamic State’s branches in the Sahel, the two terrorist groups are consolidating their sanctuaries and gaining an unprecedented range of action. With concern that Wagner may seek out Burkina Faso as its next client, the Russian mercenaries’ aggravation of the jihadi threat has very concerning implications for the stability and security of the region. (...)​
(...) This article examines the impact the Wagner Group has had on the jihadi threat environment in the Sahel region, with a significant focus on Mali. The article proceeds in four parts. It first provides some context on the counterterrorism environment in the region, then outlines how the Wagner Group has worked to ingratiate itself with governments in the Sahel. It then examines the Wagner Group’s impact on the jihadi threat picture in Mali and potential future impact in Burkina Faso before providing some brief conclusions. The bottom line is that the Wagner Group has not helped bring security to the region and is in fact aggravating the jihadi threat. (...)​
 
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Rébellion Wagner : quel impact pour l'Afrique ? – DW – 26/06/2023 (June 26, 2023)

In the streets of Bamako today, fear has replaced surprise. "Even the Russian government can't control them," said one resident. "And in our countries, where they are now, what should we do then? This means that it is not a force that we can control, so it is very dangerous for us. "

Another passer-by adds: "The Malians have signed an agreement with Wagner to come and save us! And if we learn that Russia, our new partner, is in conflict with Wagner, then that is very, very scary."

For Adrien Poussou, former Central African minister and author of a book entitled "Africa does not need Poutine" published in 2022 by L'Harmattan, the agreements concluded between the Central African Republic and Wagner's forces for the exploitation of the country's resources prevent any change in the situation.

"President Touadéra is Wagner's hostage, and he is aware of it." Assesses the essayist. "So the situation, from my point of view, despite this aborted Wagner rebellion, will remain frozen in the Central African Republic, until a power superior to that of Wagner can get involved."

"We are sure that Prigojine has lost its influence in Russia itself. Whereas in Africa, Wagner's deployment and Wagner's political and military positioning will remain unchanged", underlines Nils Schmid, deputy of the German SPD party specializing in the foreign politic.

"It is in the interest of the Russian government and the Wagner troops to continue their efforts and deployment in Africa to take advantage of natural resources, gold and the like. For the projection of Russian power in Africa, Wagner remains a essential tool."

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/arti...d-utilisation-la-junte-malienne-pour-s-armer- in-ukraine_6174858_3212.html [paywall]

A US intelligence document reveals that Yevgeny Prigojine's Russian mercenary company wanted to go through Mali to buy weapons from Turkey.
 
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(projetafriquechine, jul.23)

Chinese and Australians hand in hand for lithium in Mali

While Western governments are scrambling to put in place strategies and initiatives to reduce their dependence on Chinese supplies of strategic minerals and are trying to develop their own supply chains, their private companies have a different agenda and don't seem ready to part company with China any time soon.​
The latest case in point is in Mali, where Leo Lithium has signed a $520 million agreement to develop the Goulamina lithium mine in Mali.​
Leo Lithium is a partner of China's Gangfeng, which six weeks ago injected $106.1 million into Leo Lithium to acquire a 9% stake.​
Clearly, political considerations are at odds with the economic considerations of Western companies. And of all these companies, the Australian ones seem to be more inclined to work with Chinese entities.​
Without real means of pressure on these companies, the Western strategy of doing without China could well fail.​
 
Mali : craintes de conflagration dans le nord, la junte appelle au dialogue
Mali: fears of a conflagration in the north, the junta calls for dialogue

The predominantly Tuareg Coordination des mouvements de l'Azawad (CMA), a signatory of the 2015 Algiers agreement, accuses the Malian army of bombing positions of the alliance.

On Monday 28 August, the Malian junta called on the armed groups in the north who are signatories to an ailing peace agreement to resume dialogue with it, amid growing fears of a resumption of hostilities in the wake of the withdrawal of the UN mission. At the same time as this appeal was launched, the spokesman for an organisation bringing together these groups accused Malian army planes of having bombed positions belonging to the Coordination des mouvements de l'Azawad (CMA), a predominantly Tuareg alliance that has signed the agreement, in the Kidal region, without causing any damage.

Tensions have been growing for months between the central government and the groups in question. They have been heightened by the start of the withdrawal of the UN mission deployed in Mali since 2013 and forced to leave by the authorities in Bamako. The armed groups are opposed to the mission's camps being transferred to the Malian army, against a backdrop of rivalry for control of the territory.

These tensions culminated in the transfer of the UN camp in Ber in mid-August, which gave rise to fighting between soldiers and jihadists, as well as hostile acts between the army and the CMA. The situation has raised fears about the future of the 2015 agreement, which is considered to be crucial to stabilising the Sahelian country that has been in turmoil since the outbreak of independence and Salafist insurgencies in the north in 2012.

"Back to the negotiating table

The so-called Algiers agreement was signed by the CMA, pro-government armed groups and the government. The jihadists, for their part, continue to fight the state under the banner of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organisation. Concerns about the future of the agreement were voiced at length on Monday during a session of the UN Security Council.

The head of the UN mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, noted the "paralysis of the monitoring structures" of the agreement. US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was "alarmed" by the clashes in Ber and by "the resumption of hostilities in the north". "If war broke out, it would unleash unspeakable, unthinkable devastation on the people of Mali", she said. Several countries have called for a resumption of dialogue.

In a statement issued simultaneously, the Minister for Reconciliation, responsible for the peace agreement, Colonel Major Ismaël Wagué, said he "invites" the signatory movements to "return to the negotiating table". "The government remains committed to the agreement", as well as to the ceasefire agreed the previous year, he stressed.

But at the same time, Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadane, spokesman for a structure that has brought together the signatory groups since 2021, told AFP that a few bombs had been dropped on former rebel positions in Anefis, without causing any damage. The Malian army later published messages on social networks stating that it had "targeted a grouping of armed terrorist groups [GAT] in the Anéfis sector" and had "neutralised" several fighters. Malian army aircraft have flown over the Tuareg stronghold of Kidal at least twice this year.

Intensive rearmament

In a report dated August and consulted by AFP, experts mandated by the Security Council expressed their concern at such acts and said they had persistent information about "intensive rearmament" by the former rebels. They note that the implementation of the 2015 agreement, which provides for greater local autonomy and the integration of combatants into a so-called "reconstituted" army, has reached an "impasse". This weakens the signatories in the eyes of the local population and plays into the hands of the jihadists, they say.

"Many armed groups have seen their fighters change sides to join armed terrorist groups or trafficking networks", they report. Groups affiliated to the Islamic State have practically doubled the area they control in less than a year, and those affiliated to al-Qa'ida are positioning themselves "as the only player capable of protecting populations against the Islamic State", they say.

This new situation offers "terrorist groups the opportunity to repeat the scenario" of 2012, with the capture of major cities in the north, they write. Before the Security Council, Mali's representative Issa Konfourou assured the Council that the army had not violated the Algiers agreement and that the State's "determination" to take control of the camps left by the UN "certainly does not constitute an act of belligerence". He denounced the "collusion recently observed between armed groups and terrorist organisations".
 
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