By Enyichukwu Enemanna
No fewer than 70 Russians on Sunday filed out to pay homage to their patriots, Wagner fighters who were killed in Mali, during a fierce battle with rebels and Islamist fighters in the African country.
The Wagner mercenary group had last month said its fighters and Malian soldiers recorded losses in heavy fighting against Tuareg rebels and Islamist fighters from an al Qaeda affiliate, a fight that happened near Mali’s border with Algeria.
Analysts have said this is the mercenary group’s most deadly defeats in Africa.
The Tuareg rebel group in northern Mali had claimed to have killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers in the deadly fighting that lasted for days late July.
Dozens of Russians in Moscow, near Kremlin had come out to mourn the fallen Wagner fighters, a Reuters journalist who witnessed the process said.
One of the mourners dressed in military camouflage and wearing Wagner badges, kneeled before pictures of the group’s fighters killed in Mali.
The Wagner motto of “Blood, Honor, Motherland, Courage” was visibly inscribed on flags underneath as some mourners lit candles.
A woman who appeared heart-broken was on her knees and wept before a picture of a Wagner fighter.
Others laid red carnations below pictures of the dead.
Heritage Times HT recalls that the military had in 2021 seized power in the African country.
It has since battled Islamist insurgency that has lasted for years.
The junta-led government had since severed ties with its former colony, France instead, leaning towards Russia for military assistance.
It has claimed that Russian forces there are not Wagner mercenaries but trainers helping local troops with equipment bought from Russia.
