Airways, satellite images indicate that Russia is deploying mercenaries in Mali
On December 23, Mali was accused by several of its international partners, including France, of allowing mercenaries from the Russian private security company Wagner Group into its territory. Although the Malian government denied the allegations, several Russian military planes have flown between Bamako and Russia in recent months.
Flight records and satellite images show new military installations near the airport, supporting the theory currently used by the Wagner Group in Mali.
On December 23, 2021, the French diplomatic services, together with some of their allies, issued a joint statement claiming that the private Russian security company, which employs mercenaries in countries such as Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic, has now moved into Mali.
“We, international partners dedicated to supporting Mali and its people […] strongly condemns the deployment of mercenaries on Malian soil “, the statement said.
But on December 25, the Malian government issued a statement saying it “gives a formal denial of these baseless allegations” about “an alleged deployment of elements from a private security company in Mali”.
“Government sources” quoted in an article published by the French daily Le Monde on December 24, 2021, have confirmed the deployment of Russian mercenaries. The article says the allegations are based on the development of a new military base near Bamako airport as well as “suspected runways”.
Using social media and online tools, the JowharObservers team was able to identify several Russian military planes flying between Moscow, Syria, Libya and Bamako over the past three months. There are also satellite images of Bamako Airport showing new installations.
Flights between Moscow and Bamako arouse suspicion
We were able to investigate flight routes using the site Flightradar24 (click here to find out how), which registers flight routes in real time. The site shows several planes traveling between Russia and Bamako Airport.
Twitter user Gerjon, who regularly tracks flights on Flightradar24, has followed aircraft that take this route. Between 19 and 20 December 2021, for example, Gerjon followed the runway of a TU-154M Tupolev – a civilian plane – which left Damascus in Syria and arrived in Bamako after staying in Libya. This plan has the registration number RA-85042.
Using the registration number RA-85042, we were able to track the plane’s latest flight path. Flightradar24 shows us that this Tupolev left Moscow on December 19 and flew to Damascus. After a halt in Libya, the plane reached Bamako on December 20. The same day the plane took off and made the same journey in the opposite direction, flying to Damascus and then Moscow.
This screenshot from flight tracker FlightRadar24 shows the latest flight paths for the RA-85082 aircraft. © FlightRadar24
According to several websites that list aircraft registration numbers, this Tupolev TU-154M belongs to the Russian Air Force.
A plane that often carries out suspicious flights
This flight between Moscow and Bamako raises further suspicions for several reasons. Firstly, because some of the “state sources” quoted by Le Monde in the December 24 article said that about 40 Russian military soldiers had arrived in Mali “several days ago”.
Jack Margolin, a member of C4ADS, a non-governmental organization dedicated to analyzing data conflicts, said the RA-85042 aircraft belongs to the “223 Air Unit”. The UN suspects that this branch of the Russian Air Force has been used on several occasions to transport troops and supplies to the Wagner Group. The UN documented some of these suspected flights in a report published in March 2021 on clashes that have taken place in Libya in recent years.
Screenshot from a report published by a group of UN experts on events in Libya in 2021. © UN
In 2020, the Wagner Group and several of its subsidiaries used several Tupolev TU-154M aircraft from the Russian Air Force’s 223rd unit, according to this report.
The report documents several Russian planes traveling between Damascus and Libya in early 2020, a time when the Wagner Group received new supplies. One of these planes was RA-85042. Between 4 and 6 January 2020, the plane made two trips between Benghazi Airport in Libya and the Russian military base in Latakia, Syria.
Flightradar24 also shows that RA-85042 in 2021 made several trips to Syria and Libya, two combat zones where Wagner is known for operating. RA-85042 also landed in the Central African Republic after a stop in Syria. On October 2, 2021, it was photographed at the airport in Bangui, the Central African capital. Russian military instructors with links to Wagner have been training the Central African Army since 2018 and on December 15, 2021, the European Union suspended its training missions for Central African soldiers due to “lack of assurance that Central African soldiers will not be employed by Wagner mercenaries.” .
This photo taken on October 2, 2021 and published on Facebook shows the Russian plane RA-85042 (right) parked at Bangui Airport, with its registration number visible. © Brice Ekomo, Centrafriquenews
Margolin says that these flights to Libya and the Central African Republic only contribute to ongoing suspicions.
“We can not definitively rule out the possibility that these planes carried other types of cargo,” he said. “But the road they took from Syria and the fact that they are part of the 223rd flight is, to me, the most solid proof that I have seen that Wagner could deploy in Mali.”
Not an isolated event
Other flights from Russia to Bamako, in addition to flight RA-85042 on December 20, 2021, have also been registered. On September 30, Gerjon’s Twitter account tracked down another Russian plane en route to Bamako. After taking off from Russia, this plane stopped in Egypt before flying on to Mali.
The next day, the official Twitter account of the Malian armed forces announced the arrival of four new combat helicopters and new ammunition – purchased from Russia by the Malian government. The pictures show a helicopter being carried into an Antonov 124-100 plane. Although this delivery was carried out by the Russian army and not the Wagner Group, it shows Russia’s increasing influence in terms of security in Mali.
The Minister of Defense and Combat Veterans, Colonel Sadio Camara, on behalf of the President of the Transition Chief of State Chief of Staff, Colonel Assimi Goïta, Friday, October 1, 2021, 4 Blind Opticists – Typ 171. pic .twitter.com/yhLxoIroux
– Forces Armées Maliennes (@FAMa_DIRPA) October 1, 2021 “Colonel Sadio Camara, the Minister of Defense and former soldiers, accepted four Mi-171 armored helicopters in the name of Colonel Assimi Goïta, the Transitional President and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, on 1 October 2021 “, reads this tweet in French from the Malian Armed Forces.
Other videos released on October 7 and November 19 show a Russian aircraft of the same model at the same location at Bamako Airport. The first picture shows helicopters on the asphalt next to Antonov. The other shows Malian soldiers unloading the plane next to two white men. The JowharObservers team could not determine the date when these two videos were filmed.
🇲🇱🇷🇺 Here is a video of 4 MI-171 helicopters, received by Mali, plus arms and ammunition offered, by the Russian Federation.
The contract, signed in December 2020, entered into force in June 2021.
🔴Macron and PLS … #France # Macron2022 #Russia #Russie pic.twitter.com/6BMjYXD8AK
– The Morocco Post ۞ (Maroc / Afrique) (@Maroc_Afrique_) October 7, 2021 “Here is a video showing 4 MI-171 helicopters as well as weapons and ammunition given to Mali by the Russian Federation. The contract, which was signed in December 2020, entered into force in June 2021. Macron is preparing for the worst … “reads this post in French from the Morocco Post. New military installations near the airport
Le Monde reported that new military installations near Bamako airport have also raised concerns among France and its partners. “Military installations that could house a number of mercenaries” have been observed just south of the airport, near base 101 of Malian Air Force, the newspaper reported.
If you take a closer look at the satellite images available on Google Earth, you can see that a plot has been cleared near the 101 base since September.
The satellite image on the left shows air base 101 at Bamako Airport on September 17, 2021. The image on the right was taken on the same base on November 6, 2021. In the interval, it can be seen that vegetation was cleared from a large piece of land. © Google Earth
A closer look at the picture taken on November 6 shows about 15 tents and several vehicles on a new plot.
The satellite image on the left shows several military installations. When you zoom in, tents are revealed at the top right and vehicles at the bottom right. © Google Earth
Le Monde reported that there were “a dozen military tents”, “several trucks used to transport troops” and “about 60 armored vehicles” at base 101. The cause of these military installations is still unknown.
