Russia Releases First-Person Video of Deadly Mali Clash, Says 11 JNIM Fighters Killed – SOFX

Russia’s Africa Corps released point-of-view combat footage this week showing its personnel engaging fighters from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), al-Qaeda’s Sahel affiliate, in central Mali, saying its troops killed 11 militants and seized their weapons.

The helmet-camera video, published through Africa Corps-affiliated Telegram channels and recirculated widely on X and Reddit, appears to show Russian personnel exchanging close-range fire in scrubland before moving through the position and collecting rifles from the dead. SOFX could not independently verify the location, date, or casualty figure, and JNIM has not commented on the engagement.

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Russia’s Africa Corps has released first-person combat footage from clashes with JNIM militants in the Niono area of central Mali, which it says took place on 26 July 2026.

According to the force, 11 JNIM fighters were killed during the operation, with weapons and… https://t.co/QXLvqBFt1N pic.twitter.com/yopNJXpnfF

— BSN (@Barristerstreet) July 27, 2026

The release breaks a weeks-long pattern in which nearly all battlefield imagery out of Mali has come from the militants’ side. JNIM and the Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) published photos and video of their July 18 ambush on a joint Malian-Russian convoy near Tabrichat, which killed at least 50 troops, a security source told AFP.

JNIM also released drone footage of a Mi-24 attack helicopter its fighters shot down near Kouakourou on July 19, the second helicopter lost in two weeks, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data analyst Héni Nsaibia. Africa Corps, the Russian Defense Ministry force that absorbed the Wagner Group’s Mali operation in June 2025, remains the junta’s primary battlefield partner as the insurgency has expanded since French forces and United Nations peacekeepers withdrew.

A coordinated JNIM-FLA offensive launched on April 25 killed Defense Minister Sadio Camara and drove government forces out of Kidal, the northern stronghold Bamako had recaptured in November 2023.

Neither the Malian Armed Forces nor the Russian Defense Ministry has issued an official statement on the engagement shown in the footage.