2023-09-24 17:22:55
Several people are believed to have been killed when a plane crashed in Mali, including members of the Russian mercenary group Wagner. The plane that crashed during landing belonged to the Malian army, a military representative told the AFP news agency on Sunday. The plane “with allies” that crashed on Saturday was operating in Gao.
Those close to the rescue workers said that mainly Russian Wagner soldiers were seen when the survivors arrived. There was initially no official information about damage and victims. However, those close to the airport and diplomatic circles said that these could be high.
Investigators returned to the crash site on Sunday, according to a source at Gao airport. The injured had already been transported to an unknown destination by another plane on Saturday evening.
Nothing was initially known about the cause of the crash. A representative of the Bundeswehr operational command in Mali as part of the UN Minusma mission said that the Russian-made IL-76 aircraft may have overshot the runway on Saturday. An airport official said the crashed plane was “overloaded.”
Gao airport is currently used by both Malian soldiers and their Russian allies, as well as the UN peacekeeping mission Minusma.
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Mali has been the scene of a rebellion by Islamist extremists for years, which began in the north of the country in 2012 and later spread to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. Since 2013, Minusma has been intended to help bring peace to the country and protect the civilian population.
However, the military government in Mali, which came to power in a coup in 2021, called for the immediate withdrawal of the UN mission from the West African country in June. The background is growing tensions between the junta and countries involved in the operation. The military government is increasingly working with Russia and the Wagner mercenary group and, from the perspective of France and Germany, for example, is hindering the UN mission.
The federal government had already decided to withdraw the Bundeswehr from Mali in 2022, which should take place by the end of 2023. There are currently several hundred Bundeswehr soldiers in Mali.
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