Mali: le groupe paramilitaire russe Wagner annonce son départ et est remplacé par Africa Corps

Le groupe paramilitaire russe Wagner plie bagages du Mali avec ses mercenaires après trois ans et demi de présence. Il passe le relais à Africa Corps, un autre groupe paramilitaire plus fermement, sous la coupe du Kremlin.


À Bamako, dans les milieux officiels, aucune des sources contactées par nos soins ne confirme ou n'infirme le départ des mercenaires russes du groupe Wagner du pays. On le sait, la junte malienne a toujours nié la présence de ces mercenaires sur son territoire, préférant le terme « d’instructeurs russes ».

Côté Wagner, le départ du Mali de ces troupes est annoncé après un peu plus de trois ans de présence. La relève sera assurée par une autre structure : Africa Corps. C’est une organisation également paramilitaire russe assurant en Afrique la défense des intérêts extérieurs de la Russie. Composé d’ex-Wagner et surtout de nouvelles recrues, Africa Corps est plutôt étroitement contrôlé par le ministère russe de la Défense. C’est un peu un changement quand on se souvient que Wagner était fermement dirigé par Evgueni Prigojine certes proche du Kremlin, mais forte tête, avant sa mort dans un accident d’avion en juillet 2023.

En quittant le Mali, Wagner dresse un bilan très élogieux de sa présence. Autre son de cloche, si la présence de Wagner a permis de reprendre des mains des rebelles maliens la ville de Kidal, la sécurité n’est pas revenue sur une grande partie du territoire national. En plus Wagner a été accusé d’exactions sur les populations civiles par plusieurs organisations de défense des droits de l’homme.

It’s #UNSC elections day.

The UN General Assembly is voting to elect five new non-permanent members for the 2026–2027 term.

📘 SCR’s 2025 Elections Report has profiles, seat distribution, and potential Council dynamics.

A South African woman is sentenced to life in prison for selling her young daughter.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A South African woman was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for selling her 6-year-old daughter.

Kelly Smith was sentenced by a judge alongside two others, her boyfriend and another man, who also received life sentences. All three were convicted earlier this month on kidnapping and human trafficking charges.

Smith’s daughter, Joshlin, went missing in February 2024 when she was 6, sparking a nationwide hunt by police in South Africa. She has still not been found.

Smith, boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn were sentenced to life terms for human trafficking and 10 years each for kidnapping.

Their sentences were read out by Judge Nathan Erasmus at a sports centre in the west coast town of Saldanha Bay. The trial was moved to the sports centre so members of the local community could attend.

Smith — whose full name is Racquel Chantel Smith — was initially a figure of sympathy when her daughter went missing. Community members rallied around her and volunteered to help police search for Joshlin in the sand dunes near their poor neighbourhood of shacks close to Saldanha Bay, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Cape Town.

A photograph of Joshlin smiling and with her hair tied in pigtails was broadcast by news stations across South Africa during the hunt for her.

Smith said she had left Joshlin with Appollis on the day she disappeared, but the case took a shocking twist when Smith was arrested.

A woman testified during the trial that Smith had told her she and the two men had sold Joshlin for around US$1,000 to a traditional healer who wanted the child for her body parts.

The judge’s verdict did not make any conclusions on who the child was sold to or exactly what happened to her, but said she had been sold for slavery or practices similar to slavery.

Several senior members of the #ANC want the party leadership to convene a meeting of the national executive committee so that they can discuss the Freedom Front Plus and the DA’s continued participation in the government of national unity.

A suspected #RSF strike hits a prison, killing at least 19 in Sudan, officials say. A suspected drone strike launched by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces hit a prison in the southern region of Kordofan on Saturday and killed at least 20 inmates, authorities said.

Fifty other detainees were wounded in the attack on the main prison in Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan, Information Minister Khalid Aleiser said in a statement.

Aleiser, who is also the spokesman of the military-allied government, accused the Rapid Support Forces for the attack, which came as the militia escalates drone strikes on the military-held areas across the country.

Sudan plunged into civil war on April 15, 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare in the capital Khartoum and other parts of the country. Obeid is 363 kilometers (225 miles) south of Khartoum.

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which earlier this month launched multi-day drone attack on Port Sudan, the Red Sea city serving as an interim seat for the Sudanese government. The strikes hit the city’s airports, maritime port and other facilities including fuel storages.

The military earlier struck Nyala airport in South Darfur, where the RSF receives foreign military assistance, including drones. Local media say dozens of RSF officers were killed in last week’s strike.

In the western region of Darfur, an artillery attack by the RSF on Friday on a camp for displaced people killed at least 14, according to the Emergency Room, an activist group tracking the war. The dead included two parents, their eight children and the children’s grandmother, the group said.

The RSF has launched nearly daily attacks on the camp and the nearby city of el-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur, which the paramilitaries have attempted to seize for more than a year.

Last month the RSF rampaged through Sudan’s largest camp for displaced, Zamzam, killing more than 400 people. The militia took control of the camp, pushing its population to flee.

The war has killed at least 24,000 people, though the number is likely far higher. It has driven about 13 million people from their homes, including 4 million who crossed into neighboring countries. Parts of the country have been pushed into famine.

The fighting has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in Darfur, according to the U.N. and international rights groups.

Osun Assembly proposes six months jail for skating on public roads. Lawmakers in the Osun House Assembly have resolved to impose a fine of six months imprisonment or N20,000 fine for skating on public roads or sidewalks in the state.

#nigeria, Radda commends Tinubu, others for two-day visit to Katsina

#Kenya. Seven arrested over Naivasha robbery, ‘harmless’ pistol recovered

#SouthAfrica. The governemnt has decided to close the South African embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria, effective from 30 June this year.

Attack on hospital run by Doctors Without Borders leaves at least 4 dead in South Sudan.

JUBA, South Sudan — Doctors Without Borders said Saturday that its facility in a remote part of South Sudan was targeted in an aerial bombardment that resulted in some casualties.

The hospital is located in a northern town known as Old Fangak, some 475 kilometres (295 miles) outside of Juba, the capital.

The medical charity, known by its French initials, MSF, released a statement on X condemning the attack on its hospital, said to be the only source of medical care for 40,000 residents, including many people displaced by flooding.

It called the attack “a clear violation of international law.”

Fangak County Commissioner, Biel Butros Biel, told The Associated Press that at least four people were killed in the aerial attack, including a nine-month-old child. He added that at least 25 people were wounded, though an assessment of the damage was ongoing.

It was not immediately clear why the facility was targeted, apparently by government troops. A spokesman for South Sudan’s military could not be reached for comment.

A spokesperson for MSF said their hospital in Old Fangak was hit by airstrikes shortly after 4 a.m. on Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The attack caused significant damage to the hospital’s pharmacy, destroying all medical supplies. There was no definitive word on casualties.

Additional strikes occurred hours later near the Old Fangak market, causing widespread panic and displacement of civilians, according to several eyewitnesses.

Old Fangak is one of several major towns in Fangak county, an ethnically Nuer part of the country that has been historically associated with the opposition party loyal to Riek Machar, South Sudan’s first vice president, who is now under house arrest for alleged subversion.

The town has been ravaged since 2019 by flooding that has left few options for people to escape the fighting. One eyewitness, Thomas Mot, said that some left by boat, while others fled on foot into flood waters.

The attack on the hospital is the latest escalation in a government-led assault on opposition groups across the country.

Since March, government troops backed by soldiers from Uganda have conducted dozens of airstrikes targeting areas in neighboring Upper Nile State.