From the Russian telegram channel “African Initiative”:
"France’s strategic counteroffensive in Africa ended in failure…
Today, the most powerful attempt to oust us from MALI took place. This is a strategically important country for us (and the enemy respectively) in western Africa and one of our main outposts in this part of the continent. It was here that our victorious march on the continent began. And therefore it is here that France (and the West as a whole) wants to oust us first and foremost.
For the past few years, a war with local radical Islamists and Saharan Tuaregs has been going on in Mali, which was inherited by the pro-Russian authorities of the country. Who, under the guidance of Western curators and instructors, have been preparing for one powerful attack all this time.
Which began early this morning and was simply well-coordinated and organized. It began with a simultaneous attack by thousands of militants on hundreds of motorcycles and pickups. Who attacked several strategically important points of the country - the cities Kati, Kidal, Gao, Bourem and Sevare.
Kati - a northern suburb of the capital Bamako, control over which would have allowed the jihadists to attack the capital. And at the same time, success here would have allowed them to tie up the main forces of our “African Corps” and local security forces (not allowing them to react to events in the east and north of the country).
Sevare - the most important junction of strategic roads in the center of Mali, control over which would have given the militants the opportunity to cut the country into separate parts and thereby disunite the government forces.
In Gao is a strategically important bridge over the Niger River, control over which would have allowed to control any maneuvers of forces in this part of the country, and in the neighboring city of Bourem is an important junction of roads. And joint control over these areas would also have given the opponents of the official authorities a significant tactical advantage.
And finally, Kidal - a major outpost of the authorities in the northeastern, desert part of the country, populated by Tuaregs.
And as I said above, today in the morning a simultaneous attack from all sides began according to a clearly coordinated and well-organized plan. And by lunchtime, all Ukrainian quasi-military information outlets (and we must understand that in Mali, mercenaries from Ukraine are working as instructors) were flooded with victory reports, as they, together with NATO, in one day threw the Russians out of Mali. Who, a few hours later, shut up and are now silent like fish (trying to understand how it happened that literally in a few hours the “victory” suddenly turned into a “betrayal”).
Meanwhile, our units of the “African Corps”, whose main base was subjected to an unexpected morning attack, went on the counteroffensive in the area of the capital and by the evening completely cleared out individual militants who had broken into the capital and drove out the enemy from Kati. And the second wave of attackers, the so-called “second echelon”, which began to develop the success, having seen that the first attack had faltered and turned into a beating of the attackers, turned around and fled.
At this moment, as of this evening, the day in general remained with us. Practically everywhere we managed to inflict a defeat on the enemy, and the count of his losses (killed, wounded and captured) is already in the hundreds. If not thousands (who will now count them and collect them from the desert).
Importantly, the local defense forces, which our military have been teaching for so long, put up serious resistance, and despite the losses, did not abandon the positions they occupied. Unfortunately, our “African Corps” also suffered losses today. But given the scale of the battles, this was inevitable.
God rest the guys. To be a warrior is to live forever!"
https://xcancel.com/YuriPodolyaka/status/2048137202631323715
Update from “African Initiative” in Telegram (26.04.26) - Summing up yesterday’s battles
"So yesterday, the “united forces” of the terrorist groups “Azawad Liberation Front” and “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”, prepared by Western special services with large-scale forces (up to 10-12 thousand people in total), attempted (if we analyze the entire scenario of yesterday’s events) a de facto coup d’état in Mali.
To understand. They attempted to seize key objects in the capital. And first and foremost, the presidential palace. In addition, major cities of the country (Gao, Kidal, Kita, and Sevaré) were attacked with the aim of seizing city administration buildings.
By the way (this was not reported yesterday, but it became known in the morning), in the areas of the cities of Kidal and Gao, Ukrainian and European mercenaries participated in the attack on state objects and government forces (hence the informed Ukrainian military information outlets). Given that the militants were incompetent, the task of covering their attack from the air was entrusted to them (using MANPADS “Stinger” and “Mistral”).
It was they who shot down our “helicopter” (though they were later themselves destroyed).
At the same time, it was primarily thanks to the courage and heroism of the “African Corps” (“AK”) that yesterday we managed to prevent a “Syrian scenario” in Mali. The units of the “AK” held all significant positions and airfields, as well as the national arsenal in the city of Kita.
Also, it was thanks to the skillful actions of the leadership of the “AK” Corps that a competent defense of the presidential guard and national troops units was organized, which did not allow the seizure of the presidential palace.
Over the past 24 hours, according to updated data as of the morning, the losses of the militants amounted to more than 1,000 terrorists killed (not all have been counted yet):
Bamako - more than 200 people, Gao - 500 people, Kita - 300 people.
And more than 50 units of automotive equipment. This is the result. An excellent one, in my opinion. It’s just a pity that our embassy in the Republic of Mali did not notice this."