Illustrative image.
Militants fighting Mali’s government are getting weapons, fighters and training through a network running from Libya to Ukraine, according to an investigative report published by RT on August 12.
Backed by Russia’s Africa Corps, Mali’s army has been fighting the militants, mainly from the separatist Tuareg Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).
RT said the militants are getting steady reinforcements through a smuggling route carrying weapons and fighters from Libya into Mali. It cited a 2026 UN report on Libya, which found that ISIS militants in southern Libya set up a company in 2025 to move militants from Syria into the Sahel in small groups.
New arrivals go through religious indoctrination, according to the report. After that, they join either the FLA or the more radical JNIM.
RT published a graphic listing about 803 weapons it says were seized from fighters in Mali over the past year. That included 529 rifles and small arms, 137 machine guns, 56 mines and explosives, 35 grenade launchers, and smaller numbers of pistols, mortars, artillery, and one anti-aircraft weapon. RT attributed the arms to both the FLA and JNIM.
Click to see full-size image. (RT)
Analyst Angelina Paskhina, who contributes to a journal published by the Russian Academy of Sciences, said al-Qaeda also runs a wide network supplying weapons and trainers to the region.
Meanwhile, open-source analyst Yaroslav Sychev described the Azawad coalition as a mix of secular fighters active since 2012, Libyan recruits, and defectors from more radical Algerian groups. He named two informal leaders: Bilal ag Asherif, whom he called more pragmatic, and Alghabas ag Intallah, whom he linked more closely to radical elements. Sychev said a militant training camp operates in Libya’s Fezzan region with France’s knowledge.
RT also cited a report by French newspaper Le Monde which revealed that a Libyan-born, British Tuareg figure named Bessada Akli Sheika traveled with Azawad commanders to Ukraine. There, the group spent over a month in sabotage training.
The report described Sheika as a senior adviser to the Tuareg alliance who has visited its camps and met ag Asherif personally. Malian authorities offered an $820,000 reward in June for information on ag Asherif’s location.
Citing the outlet Africa Intelligence, RT said Sheika may have also arranged an unpublicized 2025 trip by ag Asherif to France and Italy.
The report noted that Sheika’s Mali visit coincided with the appearance of Ukrainian instructors and drones in Tuareg camps. It said a cable bearing the logo of Ukrainian drone-parts maker 3DTech, which it linked to Kyiv forces, turned up in northern Mali markets in late May.
Paskhina said it was plausible Ukrainian weapons that entered Libya could have spread further, noting Ukrainian instructors and the U.S. firm Amentum both operate in Tripoli.
RT also cited French broadcaster RFI’s estimate that roughly 200 Ukrainian instructors are based in Tripoli and Misrata, Libya.
Sychev said the Libyan route wouldn’t do much to help Mali’s separatists, since forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar control the border crossings the Ukrainians would need to use. He said a separate route through Mauritania has become more important for supplying weapons to Malian militants.
In addition, Sychev cited an unnamed JNIM militant who said a “European” contact had supplied components for drones. He noted that this claim was consistent with reports that Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, working through its embassy in Mauritania, has provided support to jihadist fighters there.
A captured Tuareg fighter identified as Mohamed ag-Abdallah told RT that a Ukrainian unit arrived last year in Ivory Coast, on Mali’s southern border, to organize attacks.
RT cited photographs it said show a fighter using the call sign R4, whom it described as a source for French analysts, wearing a T-shirt bearing the insignia of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. Turkish media reported that a second fighter, photographed alongside R4, had also been trained in Ukraine.
Sychev said Mali’s militants also get indirect help from Mauritania’s government, which he said keeps informal ties to the militants and sometimes mediates between them and Mali.
Analyst Alexander Nadzharov, of Russia’s Higher School of Economics, said no foreign European fighters have been seen in combat but argued France is directly behind the planning and weapons supply for Azawad’s attacks.
He said Ukrainians could have been recruited by the French for specific jobs, such as drone operations. Paskhina said France has kept informal ties to Malian officials from its former colony and suggested Paris would not rule out unconventional steps against Russia and its allies. She also said Western media have given more coverage to separatist voices than to Mali’s government.
Military commanders took power in Mali after coups in 2020 and 2021, vowing to restore security in the country where militants control large areas in the north and center. Under the leadership of Goita, Mali moved away from France and built strong relations with both Russia and Turkey. The military government has also been pursuing closer ties with the United States.
This year saw a surge in attacks by the FLA and JNIM, which managed to capture the regional capital of Kidal region in northern Mali last April, although they have since suffered a series of setbacks, losing hundreds of militants in futile attempts to further expand their control.
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why not? france was the one that empowered mali militants to begin with when arming jihadis to turn libya into a 15 year war zone.
why russia keeps helping mali and did not have the balls to help syria, venezuela, armenia and cuba? these 4 are geo politically are 100 times more important than mali