#Mali : The Malian president received new military equipment on Tuesday, including five planes and a combat helicopter, delivered by his Russian partner, noted an AFP journalist.
The colonels, who took power by force in August 2020 in this country in the midst of security turmoil, have decided to separate from the old French ally engaged militarily against the jihadists since 2013 and to vigorously relaunch cooperation with Russia.
Russia had already delivered several combat helicopters and weapons in March. Mali has welcomed in large numbers what the junta presents as Russian instructors.
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France and its partners denounce for their part the use of the junta to the services of the private Russian security company Wagner, the decried actions. The junta denies and speaks of a former partnership with the Russian army.
Russia had admitted in May a presence of Wagner in Mali «on a commercial basis».
«I must say that today’s ceremony is historic, as much by the nature, the quality as by the volume of what you are giving us, of which we will only present a part here, the rest being of course engaged in operation at the time of this ceremony»a dit Camara.
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«We are consolidating our reconnaissance and attack capability with L39 and Sukhoi 25 fighter planes, which are added to the Super Tucano and other aircraft already in use. As well as the MI24P type attack helicopters, which are added to the MI 35 and the MI24 already delivered»he added.
No information has been made public regarding the conditions for acquiring the equipment.
Mali has been in turmoil since 2012.