Russia v. Ukraine – in an African Desert 

EXCLUSIVE REPORTING — The column of Malian authorities troopers and Russian mercenaries from the previous Wagner Group was advancing via a shallow valley within the southern Sahara desert in late July, a number of hundred miles north of the legendary caravanserai of Timbuktu, when a roadside bomb exploded, halting the troops and their automobiles.

What adopted was a three-day battle, pitting Tuareg separatists towards the Malians and their Russian protectors close to the city of Tinzaouaten. When a sandstorm prompted a retreat, the Malians and Russians stumbled into an ambush by an al-Qaeda-linked Islamic militia group often known as the JNIM, which has cooperated with the Tuaregs. Scores of Wagner fighters and Malian troopers had been killed, and a number of other extra had been captured.