Mali: africa corps faces significant setbacks amidst surging jihadist offensives

A significant and symbolic reversal has shaken Mali. On Sunday, April 26, in Kidal, northeastern Mali, Russian mercenaries from the Africa Corps – who succeeded the Wagner Group in 2025 and are allied with the Bamako junta – made a hasty retreat. Humiliating images shared across social media depicted these Africa Corps personnel disarmed, loaded onto trucks, and compelled to depart the area under pressure from the GSIM jihadist group (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, also known as JNIM) and their Touareg rebel allies from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA). Their departure was so swift that dozens of armored vehicles and helicopters were abandoned, falling into the hands of the jihadists and Touareg rebels. Additionally, several Malian soldiers were captured after brief skirmishes.

Since Saturday, the Sahelian nation has been gripped by a series of coordinated assaults launched by GSIM jihadists, who are affiliated with Al-Qaïda, in collaboration with the FLA Touareg separatist rebellion. These attacks targeted strategic junta positions throughout the territory, including areas on the outskirts of the capital, Bamako.

a strategic shift in power

On Monday, the Africa Corps paramilitary group, which operates under the control of the Russian Ministry of Defense, confirmed the withdrawal of its forces from Kidal, a key northern city in Mali. This marks a significant moment for the FLA rebels, who witnessed Wagner Group mercenaries seize the city and proudly display their black flag with a white skull just eighteen months prior, in November 2023. For the Russian allies of the junta, this represents a considerable defeat. Djenabou Cissé, an associate researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research, highlighted to Le Parisien that “the only true strategic success the Russians had achieved since their arrival in Mali in 2021 was precisely the capture of Kidal, a historic Touareg stronghold.” Its fall, she noted, signifies a major repudiation of their efforts.

The synchronized GSIM offensives also struck the capital, Bamako, as well as Kati, home to the country’s primary military base, and Gao, a former United Nations base. In total, at least six cities across the nation were targeted.

Since 2021, Mali has been governed by a military junta that seized power through a coup in the same year. Concurrently, the country has been under siege for years by the Al-Qaïda-affiliated jihadist group, which contributed to making the region the global epicenter of terrorism and its victims in 2025, according to a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace. Since the summer of 2025, jihadists have inflicted numerous defeats on Malian armed forces and their Russian allies, notably imposing blockades around the capital in an attempt to economically cripple it.

long-standing ineffectiveness of russian forces

To counter the escalating jihadist advance, Malian military leaders enlisted Russian mercenaries – initially with Wagner starting in 2021, and then with Africa Corps since 2025. However, the violence has only intensified. Disturbingly, some of the most egregious attacks against civilians have been perpetrated by these Russian mercenaries and members of the Malian army, as reported by The Washington Post. Since 2021, various reports from the United Nations and the International Federation for Human Rights have documented a surge in conflict-related sexual violence, attributed to Malian defense and security forces and their Russian auxiliaries, as Le Monde detailed last August.

According to Wassim Nasr, a journalist specializing in jihadist movements, “it has long been evident that Russian mercenaries were ineffective as counter-terrorism partners, whether under the Wagner Group or now within Africa Corps. Saturday’s attacks have only underscored these challenges,” he conveyed to The Washington Post.

Over the weekend, videos from across Mali vividly illustrated the scale of the attacks. In Kidal, jihadists stormed the governor’s office. In Bamako, residents observed GSIM fighters entering the city with little to no resistance. On the outskirts of the capital, in Kati, the junta’s headquarters, a bomb attack destroyed the home of Defense Minister Sadio Camara, who tragically lost his life in the offensive.

accusations of ‘betrayal in Kidal’

On Monday, Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga addressed the press, paying tribute to Defense Minister Sadio Camara while striving to reassure the public. During a brief televised address, his first appearance since the jihadist offensive began on Saturday, President and junta leader Assimi Goïta declared on Tuesday evening that the situation was “under control” and affirmed that operations would persist until “the complete neutralization of the groups involved” in the attacks.

Despite limitations on freedom of expression, the perceived failure of the Malian Armed Forces (Famas) and Africa Corps soldiers is already being questioned in Mali. An anonymous Malian officer told RFI that “the Russians betrayed us in Kidal.” According to this officer, the regional governor had warned the Russian mercenaries “three days before the attack, and they did nothing. In reality, they had already negotiated their departure.” If the Russians have indeed left Kidal, they are also reportedly on the verge of withdrawing from other northern localities, which could further destabilize the regular Malian army.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov, during his daily briefing on Tuesday, April 28, declined to answer whether Africa Corps would be able to contain the situation. However, he maintained that Russian forces had thwarted a coup attempt by FLA and GSIM fighters in Mali, as reported by Reuters.