The plane that crashed on Saturday while landing in Gao, northern Mali, belongs to the Malian army and was carrying soldiers from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, local military and fire brigade sources said on Sunday.
The accident is shrouded in secrecy and no official figures on fatalities or possible survivors have been released. It is known that some passengers were injured.
But the human and material toll is high, an airport source and another diplomatic source told news agency France-Presse (AFP): without providing further details on the number of victims, but guaranteeing that the vast majority of survivors belong to the paramilitary mercenary group Wagner.
“The crashed plane belongs to the Malian army and I can confirm that the plane was on a mission with partners in Gao,” a Malian military official told AFP.
“Today the researchers returned to the field. On Saturday night, the injured white people were transported to an unknown destination on another plane,” an airport source assured, although others were receiving medical treatment in Gao.
“When the survivors arrived yesterday [sábado] According to Gao, they were almost exclusively Russian soldiers from Wagner,” said a source close to the fire brigade, who requested anonymity.
The causes of the accident are still unknown, but a spokesman for the German military, still present in Gao as part of the United Nations mission in Mali (Minusma), stated that the plane must have overshot the runway, according to information from become available sooner. Saturday afternoon.
The crashed plane, he said, is a “Russian-made IL-76 model.”
The Gao military airport is used by the Malian army, its Russian partners and MINUSMA.
Mali’s ruling junta sidelined French anti-jihadist forces in 2022 and UN forces in 2023 to turn to Russia militarily and politically. It claims to have used the services of “instructors” in the framework of bilateral cooperation with Russia and denies the presence of Wagner, although the existence of mercenaries of the Russian security group is widely accepted by other actors working in Mali .
The accident occurred in a context of increasing tensions between the various armed actors in the region and the Malian army.
Since August, the Timbuktu and Gao regions have been the scene of a series of attacks on army positions and civilians.
The army and armed groups are fighting for control of the area, at a time when MINUSMA is in retreat.
Source: DN
