Battle of Tinzaouaten (2024)
| Battle of Tinzaouaten | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mali War | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
|
Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin |
Wagner Group Mali | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Sedane Ag Hita Abderahmane Zaza |
Anton Yelizarov Sergei Shevchenko † | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 1,000+ (per Wagner Group) |
75+ Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Per CSP: Per Mali: Per NYT: 18 CSP killed 45 CSP wounded |
Per Russian sources: Per CSP: Per JNIM: Per NYT: 46+ killed 2 captured 24+ killed 9 captured | ||||||||
The battle of Tinzaouaten was a battle between the rebel coalition Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), and the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) backed by the Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded mercenary group. It took place in the outskirts of Tinzaouaten, a commune near the Algeria–Mali border. The Sahelien branch of al-Qaeda, Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), also claims to have taken part in the battle against the Malian and Wagner forces, but CSP denied their involvement.
The battle began on 25 July 2024, when CSP rebels ambushed a military convoy transporting Malian and Wagner personnel to Tinzaouaten. The ensuing fighting saw dozens of Malian and Wagner forces killed, injured or captured and resulted in the rebels claiming control of the commune. FAMa acknowledged that it suffered heavy losses, while inflicting over 20 casualties on the rebels. CSP claimed that around 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers were killed. The Wagner Group's death toll in the battle varied in reports by Russian Telegram sources, which said that it was between 20 and 80.
According to the pro-Russian news outlet African Initiative, the Wagner Group suffered at least 25 deaths, making the battle their most significant loss in Mali since their deployment in 2021 and one of the deadliest attacks on Russian personnel in Africa since 2017.