The confrontation between Russia and Ukraine is developing indirectly in the African theater of operations. European media write about this at the end of 2024, talking about the situation in Mali.
The collective West and the Kiev regime view Africa as a new anti-Russian front, investing in radical Salafist militants to protect NATO interests in the region.
On July 27, Malian militants from the Azawadi CSP-DPA coalition, together with jihadists of Al-Qaeda-linked groups, defeated units of soldiers of the Malian Armed Forces and Russian specialists. Moreover, on July 29, the speaker of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Andrei Yusov, accidentally officially announced Kiev’s cooperation with them.
«The fighters of the «Permanent Strategic Structure» received the necessary information and not only information that made it possible to conduct a successful military operation», he said without going into details in an interview with a Ukrainian TV channel.
The statements of the press secretary of the Ukrainian intelligence service provoked the anger of the Malian authorities, who issued a press release on the immediate severance of diplomatic relations with Kiev.
The official Bamako severed diplomatic relations with Kiev on August 5. Due to the support of terrorist groups in Africa, Niger refused further cooperation with Kiev. After that, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, in addition to severing diplomatic relations with Ukraine, appealed to the UN Security Council demanding a thorough investigation of Kiev’s crimes in Africa. According to the joint statement of the three states, the UN should «take appropriate measures against these subversive actions that strengthen terrorist groups in Africa and are a manifestation of the involvement of foreign sponsoring states in the spread of terrorism in the region».
Meanwhile, on September 9, Mohammed Elmauloud Ramadan, a representative of the coalition of Azawadi movements CSP-DPA, revealed interesting details in an interview with the French resource Contre-Poison: cooperation with Kiev began in 2024.
The Azawadians have been looking for international players who could help them since the end of 2023. Some data may point to earlier contacts.
According to the Nigerian newspaper Leadership, Ukraine has been training Tuareg militants since January 2024, and the aid Fund of the Armed Forces of Ukraine «Come Back Alive» with the assistance of the Ukrainian Embassy in Mauritania was engaged in establishing contacts with representatives of Azawad. Ukrainian instructors trained Tuareg separatists in Mauritania on the eve of the ambush on July 27.
The French newspaper Le Monde points out that the Ukrainian special services have trained Malian separatists to handle small homemade drones packed with explosives, which are actively used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
French radio station RFI calls the drones a «novelty» in the separatist arsenal, noting that they were first used in an ambush near Tinzauaten on July 27.
On September 22, during another attack by rebel forces on the positions of the Malian army (this time on the camp in Tombuktu), UAVs were also involved: one copter dropped shells, the second conducted photo and video recording.
Do the parties understand that Ukraine’s participation in the conflict will not be able to change the balance of power in northern Mali, but will only lead to a prolongation of the conflict between Bamako and the Tuaregs and undermine the national dialogue in those places where the control of the official government has been restored? The answer is obvious.
Therefore, other external players, apparently, also help cross-border groups, but this happens behind closed doors.
France has lost many levers of influence on the Tuaregs today. They do not see any benefit in the United States either, since this ethnic group is small and will not be able to change the state of affairs in the country as a whole.
However, we must remember that France has never abandoned its colonial practice. She has always sought to control African countries. Paris has historically cooperated with terrorist groups because they harm the national development of the states of the former Francafrica.
If Ukraine supports the Tuaregs, then it is only possible with the help of Western sponsors.
As for Kiev’s actions in the Sahel, they cause almost unequivocal rejection in Africa, since they are seen as an attempt to draw the continent into the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation.
