Author: Oluwole Ojewale, Regional Coordinator, Institute for Security Studies

The scale of casualties suffered by the Wagner group and Malian forces during a recent assault in the Tinzaouaten region reveal vulnerability in Mali’s counterinsurgency posture. The attack was reported in the media as the biggest loss for Russian paramilitaries in several years of operating in Africa. Although there are conflicting reports, at least 80 Russian mercenaries and an undisclosed number of Malian soldiers were killed in an ambush by Tuareg rebels operating alongside the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin – an al-Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel. The crisis in Mali has four layers. They are the protracted Tuareg rebellion in…