The identities of the mercenaries of PMC “Wagner” who died in Mali have been revealed
The Reuters agency confirmed the identities of more than 20 mercenaries of PMC “Wagner” who died and went missing in the African state of Mali.
In July 2024, in the north of Mali, rebels from the Tuareg tribes defeated a column of government forces, which consisted mainly of mercenaries of PMC “Wagner”, according to local and Russian sources. Information about the number of dead varies: the Russian BBC service reported 82 dead, the Tuaregs reported the death of 84 Russian mercenaries, and Russian sources reported 20–50 dead. PMC “Wagner” recognized the heavy losses in Mali, without giving specific figures.
Reuters conducted an investigation, compared publicly available information with messages on the Internet, and also spoke with relatives of the dead. Facial recognition software was used to reveal the identities of 23 mercenaries who died and went missing after a battle with the Tuaregs near the town of Tinzahuaten in Mali. Most of the dead and missing previously participated in hostilities in Ukraine and Libya. Among them were also retired Russian soldiers and veterans of the Chechen wars.
The agency also spoke with the relatives of the victims. Some of them said that they did not know that their loved ones were in Africa. The mother of one of the dead, 31-year-old Vadym Evsyukov, said that her son returned from the war zone in Ukraine, but could not cope with the survivor’s guilt and went to Africa at the invitation of the commander. “He wanted to fly to Africa many times. I dissuaded him as much as I could,” she said in an interview with Reuters.
The Ministry of Defense of Russia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and representatives of PMC “Wagner” did not respond to requests from Reuters to comment on the information.
According to Andrzej Cherep, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Relations, there are 1,500–2,000 Russian mercenaries in Mali. In Mali, they support the junta led by Colonel Assima Goita, who came to power after a military coup in 2022. In total, according to a Reuters source, there are currently more than 6,000 Russian mercenaries in Africa, not all of them are connected to Wagner PMC.
The mercenaries of PMC “Wagner”, who did not sign a contract with the Russian army after the uprising of June 2023 and the subsequent death of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, mostly went to Africa, where PMC participated in hostilities even before the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Official Russian mass media practically do not cover the activities of “Wagner” in Africa.
