Ukrainian drones provide support for northern Mali’s rebels – Technologist

Their use is no longer a mystery. It has even become a source of pride for the rebels of the Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), who are at war with the Malian junta and its Russian auxiliaries from the Wagner group. In recent weeks, every drone attack on an army base in northern Mali has been broadcast on social media and hailed by supporters of the predominantly Tuareg rebellion. The underlying message is that the insurgents now have air strike capabilities, just like their enemies. This equipment could change – or so they hope – the balance of military power on the ground.

On Friday morning, October 4, small drones dropped explosive charges on the army camp at Goundam in the Timbuktu region, which is home to Wagner troops. According to a CSP official, the result was that “at least nine mercenaries” from the Russian group were killed.

In September, similar attacks had already targeted the same camp at Goundam, as well as Léré, 150 kilometers to the southwest, where Wagner’s men are also stationed. The modus operandi is the same each rimz: Light quadcopter drones with four rotors, equipped with a homemade release system, drop small explosive charges on their targets from the air, then leave the area.

Wagner’s worst defeat

CSP rebels carried out drone strikes for the first time at the end of July, during the battle of Tin Zaouatine, a town in the far north of Mali bordering Algeria. They ambushed a Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) and Wagner convoy in the middle of the desert, inflicting the Russian group with its worst defeat since deploying to Africa in 2017. According to the CSP, at least 84 of the mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers were killed in the fighting. The victory had a taste of revenge for the rebels, who had been chased from their stronghold of Kidal, in November 2023, thanks largely to the support of the Malian army’s Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones.

Subsequently, Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR), implicitly acknowledged on a local TV channel that his organization was collaborating with the Malian CSP rebels. They had “received the necessary information, not just that which enabled them to carry out a successful military operation against Russian war criminals,” he said, without going into further detail. This prompted the Malian authorities to issue a statement announcing the immediate termination of diplomatic relations with Kyiv.

Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian authorities have been looking to strike Russian interests wherever possible. Not least in Africa, where Moscow has extended its influence through the nebulous Wagner.

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