The military leadership in Mali announced Monday it had severed diplomatic ties with Ukraine over its alleged support of a Malian Tuareg rebel coalition.
The decision came after a Ukraine military intelligence agency spokesman said in a video that the country had provided information to Tuareg rebels in northern Mali, fighting Malian armed forces, during a battle last month, the government said in a statement on Sunday.
Dozens of Malian soldiers and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group were killed in days of clashes with Tuareg separatist rebels and fighters linked to al-Qaeda near the Algerian border.
Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said last week that the rebels had been given the “necessary information” to conduct the attacks.
A top Malian official, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, said his government was shocked to hear the claim and accused Ukraine of violating Mali’s sovereignty.
Mali has decided to break off relations “with immediate effect”, he said.
Tuareg-led separatists claimed on Thursday they had killed 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers.
More than a decade ago, Mali’s central government lost control of much of the north following a Tuareg rebellion, which was sparked by a demand for a separate state.
The country’s security was then further complicated by the involvement of Islamist militants in the conflict.
When seizing power in coups in 2020 and 2021, the military cited the government’s inability to tackle this unrest.
The new junta severed Mali’s long-running alliance with former colonial power France in favour of Russia, in a bid to quell the unrest.