At least three Russian fighters died when a convoy of the Russian paramilitary group Africa Corps was caught in a jihadist ambush on August 1 near Tnenkou in the Mopti region of Mali. Members of the jihadist group JNIM filmed grisly footage of the dead Africa Corps combatants. They are the first images of deceased Russian soldiers to have emerged from the region since Africa Corps took over from the private Russian group Wagner in Mali in June.

Thevideosfilmed on August 1 by fighters with Jama'at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin(JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel region,are difficult to watch. The first shows bodies, some of White men, arrayed near a military truck. Another video shows an injured White man in agony being shot in the head. The rattle of automatic gunfire can be heard in the background of all these videos. The videos were first shared on jihadist WhatsApp channels before they were picked up and posted on X.

At several points in the videos, you can hear the jihadists refer to the dead men as Wagner. Wagner, the private paramilitary company founded by the lateYevgeny Prigozhin, announced that it was ending itsMalioperations on June 6, 2025. The Russian groupAfrica Corpshas taken its place. These videos seem to show that this group, reputed to have much closer ties to the Russian Ministry of Defense than its predecessor, has just suffered its first defeat in Mali.

The bodies of three mercenaries are visible in the videos filmed by jihadists with the group JNIM.Another videoshows a Russian-made Ural-4320 truck that has been totally destroyed.

The day after the ambush, online analysts published videos they said showed a helicopter in a reprisal operation against the JNIM fighters. The Observers team was not able to confirm the geolocation of the video.

Shortly after the ambush, JNIM published a statement through its official media outlet Az-Zallaqa, claiming to have captured "a military vehicle, 16 Kalashnikovs, two PK machine guns, ammunition and various other pieces of equipment.

Criticism by former Wagner recruits

After news of the ambush broke, Russian military bloggers began to criticise the Africa Corps. Military blogger and analystRybarcalled it a "stern warning that should serve as a lesson.

The African front is too often underestimated, he said. The complexity of fighting here is comparable, or perhaps even superior to, operations in the Special Operation Zone," a reference to Russias war on Ukraine.

In a message published on Telegram the day of the ambush, the pro-Wagner Russian blogger Turist called it a "disaster".

It should have been possible to avoid this considering all the resources at the disposal of the Africa Corps, he said.

He also deplored that the fighters had abandoned both some of their vehicles and the bodies of their comrades.

The Telegram channelSand Cat, which has close links to Wagner, also deplored the lack of aerial support during the ambush.

"There were no security helicopters, the administrator wrote. Precious time was thus lost and the price was the lives of our fighters. Normally, it wouldnt take longer than 20 minutes for a machine to arrive from the nearest base, if the engine is warmed up. A MI-24 [Editors note: a Russian helicopter] could have torn this group of scum [Editors note: here, he refers to the jihadists] to shreds.

Sand Cat also criticised the commanders of the Africa Corps for not making an effort to learn from the Wagner fighters who spent years in the field in Mali.

In apostfrom August 1, Sand Cat mocked the Africa Corps, imagining them saying: We dont listen to the Wagner idiots, who walked this land for years, who took their punches and know how to work here and how to work with the local population. We are too smart, we went to military school, we have experience on paper that dates back to Chechnya.

"The arrival of new heavy equipment from the Africa Corps wont change anything

Only three mercenary bodies are visible in the videos shared by the jihadists, but according to a regional specialist who wants to remain anonymous, the Russians lost many more men. He says that they did not have the right equipment for fighting against a counterinsurgency:

The Malian Armed Forces published astatementon August 1, confirming that there was an "ambush ongoing. However, in the days that followed, Malian authorities didnt provide any further details about the damage sustained or the loss of human life.

Originally published on France24