Mali takes delivery of two more Russian combat helicopters

Mali’s ruling junta on Monday announced the transport of two extra combat helicopters and surveillance radars from Russia because the West African nation tackles a bloody jihadist insurgency.

Photographs of the system being unloaded from a Russian shipment flight at Bamako global airport were posted on the professional Twitter account of Mali’s presidency.

“We are receiving this second batch of military equipment from Russia,” said army chief of staff General Oumar Diarra.

“It’s a sign of a very fruitful partnership with the Russian state,” he said in a statement.

The delivery brings to eight the known number of helicopters that Moscow has provided under closer ties forged by rebel colonels who seized power in 2020.

Russia has also supplied what is officially described as military instructors — personnel that former colonial power France and the United States say are operatives from Russia’s Wagner security group.

They had been assisting the impoverished Sahel country in combat a decade-vintage jihadist campaign that has claimed thousands of lives and driven masses of heaps from their houses.

Mali’s rapprochement with the Kremlin has induced French forces and their European allies to announce their exit from us of a.

Visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned in Bamako closing Wednesday that European forces would now not cooperate with Mali’s navy even as it continues such links with Russia.

There have been allegations that Malian troops, in coordination with foreign warring parties, massacred masses of civilians in past due March.

The military-ruled government regularly defends the rights record of its military and has additionally repeatedly denied hiring Wagner operatives.