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Dozens of Russian mercenaries fighting for the notorious Wagner Group in North Africa were massacred in an apparent ambush in Mali over the weekend.
Footage reviewed by Fox News Digital showed dozens of Russian soldiers, some with varying degrees of nakedness, many lying on top of each other and scattered around a burning vehicle, appearing to have died after the violent attack.
The events leading up to the attack are unclear, but the massacre reportedly took place when Wagner and Malian troops were ambushed by Tuareg separatists near the border with Algeria.
On July 27, 2024, dozens of Wagner's troops were massacred in an ambush by Tuareg rebels in Mali. (East2West)
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“Our forces decisively destroyed these enemy forces on Saturday,” Mohamed Elmaould Ramadan, spokesman for the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development, a rebel group in northern Mali, said in a statement on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.
“Large amounts of equipment and weapons were seized or damaged,” the spokesman added.
The statement said the rebels had taken an unconfirmed number of prisoners, leaving seven fighters dead and 12 wounded.
Russian media reported that at least 20 Wagner soldiers were killed in the ambush, while the Malian army said two soldiers were killed, but some reports said the Russian death toll could be as high as 80.
Fox News Digital was unable to independently verify the number of Russian and Malian soldiers killed in the footage, or whether any fighters were taken prisoner.
A vehicle was spotted after a brutal ambush on Russian Wagner fighters in Mali on July 27, 2024. (East2West)
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The ambush, believed to have taken place on Saturday, reportedly came after days of fighting in Mali's northeastern Tinzawa-Tenne region.
Russia's Wagner Forces are officially commanded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash in August 2023 after rebelling against the Kremlin, and have been fighting alongside the Malian army since 2022 after the Malian military leader took control of the North African country and drove out French troops.
Fighting in northern Mali has intensified in recent months since Malian military forces abandoned a 2015 peace deal with separatist forces in January.
Mali reportedly claims that the Russian troops there are not Wagner mercenaries, but trainers assisting the army in the fight against Islamic extremists.
On July 27, 2024, dozens of Wagner's troops were massacred in an ambush by Tuareg rebels in Mali. (East2West)
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But in an unusual statement to Telegram, Wagner said his own Malian troops under the command of Commander Sergei Shevchenko, whose call sign is “Pound,” participated in the fighting alongside Malian forces from July 22-27.
“On the first day, the 'Pound Group' wiped out most of the Muslims and forced the rest to flee,” Wagner said in a Telegram message, Reuters reported on Monday. “But the subsequent sandstorm allowed the militants to regroup and increase their numbers to as many as 1,000.”
Shevchenko was reportedly killed during the fighting.
Reuters contributed to this report.