Malian soldiers and their Wagner allies recently set off towards a northern town where they had suffered heavy losses months before, but returned without engaging in any fighting, military and separatist sources said Wednesday.The exact purpose of the mission remains unclear, but the convoy’s progression northwards through the desert sparked speculation the army could be seeking retaliation for the significant defeat.  Several dozen Malian government troops and fighters from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner were killed fighting separatists and jihadists in late July near the northern town of Tinzaouatene, close to the Algerian border.The convoy which set off around 10 days ago made a stop some 200 kilometres (124 miles) south of Tinzaouatene in the city of Kidal, a military and regional government source said.But armed separatists who operate in the volatile north said the mission comprising several dozen vehicles never made it to the town. An army official told AFP at the time of the convoy’s departure that it was on a “security mission on national territory”.Mali’s armed forces said in a statement on Monday that they had “recovered the remains of their brothers in arms” who had been killed in the area surrounding Tinzaouatene in July.The information was confirmed by Russia’s Tass state news agency and a Telegram post from the Community of Officers for International Security (COSI).COSI trains members of the army, police and security forces in the Central African Republic, where Wagner’s successor Africa Corps operates.”The Malian armed forces and their Russian allies mobilised to recover the bodies of their fallen comrades and today they have done their duty,” COSI’s head, Alexander Ivanov, was quoted as saying by Tass.Mali’s army has not officially announced the end of the mission, but it was described as such by a Malian military source.Armed separatist groups on social media welcomed what they called the “forced return” of the troops.- ‘Had to give up’ -“Given the size of the convoy and the resources at their disposal, everyone knows that their sole objective was to retake Tinzaouatene,” El Maouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the predominantly Tuareg separatist coalition (CSP-DPA), told AFP.”But this time they have had to give up and turn back because they are not ready for another venture,” he said.”They know what awaits them. It should be pointed out that they didn’t arrive in Tinzaouatene. They were halfway there”, he added.Speaking days after the July fighting, Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga declared: In “Tinzaouatene, we lost a battle”, but “we are never going to lose the war against the terrorists”.The Malian army retaliated with drone strikes in the days following the battle, killing several civilians including children and foreign gold miners, according to elected representatives and the separatists.Last weekend, the army claimed to have “identified and neutralised a column of vehicles belonging to armed terrorist groups” in the north.The separatists said that the vehicles were “two public transport vehicles” and that the strikes had killed seven people and wounded three others.The flow of information is restricted under the ruling junta in Mali, where journalists have little access to independent sources in remote areas.Since seizing power in a 2020 coup, Mali’s military leaders have made it a priority to retake all of the country from separatists and jihadist forces linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.In 2022, the junta broke ties with former colonial ruler France and turned militarily and politically towards other partners including Russia.After several years of truce, separatists took up arms against the state in 2023.They have since lost control of several towns in the north, following an offensive by the Malian army that culminated in the capture of Kidal, a bastion of independence and a major sovereignty issue for the central government.
