On December 23, Mali was accused by several of its international partners, including France, of allowing mercenaries from the Russian private security firm Wagner Group into its territory. Though the Malian government denied the accusations, several Russian military airplanes have flown between Bamako and Russia over the past few months. Flight records and satellite images show new military installations next to the airport, supporting the theory that the Wagner Group is currently deploying in Mali.

1. Flight Paths, Satellite Images
Indicate Russia is Deploying
Mercenaries in Mali
On December 23, Mali was accused by several of its international partners,
including France, of allowing mercenaries from the Russian private security
firm Wagner Group into its territory. Though the Malian government denied
the accusations, several Russian military airplanes have flown between
Bamako and Russia over the past few months.
Flight records and satellite images show new military installations next to the
airport, supporting the theory that the Wagner Group is currently deploying in
Mali.
Figure 1 The flight path of a plane with links to the Russian private security firm Wagner Group, travelling
between Moscow and Bamako
On December 23, 2021, France and allied countries including Canada, Germany
and the UK published a joint statement claiming that the private Russian
security firm, which employs mercenaries in countries including Syria, Libya
and the Central African Republic, was now moving into Mali.
“We, international partners dedicated to supporting Mali and its people [...]
firmly condemn the deployment of mercenaries on Malian soil,” the statement
said.

2. But on December 25, the Malian government issued a statement saying it "gives
a formal denial to these baseless allegations" of "an alleged deployment of
elements from a private security company in Mali".
Government sources cited in an article published by French daily Le Monde on
December 24, 2021, said the allegation of a Wagner deployment was based on
factors including the development of a new military base near Bamako airport
as well as “suspicious flight patterns”.
Using social media and online tools, the FRANCE 24 Observers team was able
to identify several Russian military planes that flew between Moscow, Syria,
Libya and Bamako over the past three months. There are also satellite images of
the Bamako airport that show new installations.
Flights between Moscow and Bamako raise suspicions
We were able to examine flight paths using the site Flightradar24 (click here to
find out how), which records flight paths in real time. The site shows several
planes travelling between Russia and Bamako Airport.
Twitter user Gerjon, who regularly tracks flights on Flightradar24, has been
following planes taking this route. Between December 19 and 20, 2021, for
example, Gerjon followed the flight path of a TU-154M Tupolev – a
passenger plane – that left Damascus in Syria and arrived in Bamako after
stopping in Libya. This plane has the registration number RA-85042.
Using the registration number RA-85042, we were able to track the plane’s
recent flight path. Flightradar24 shows us that this Tupolev left Moscow on
December 19 and flew to Damascus. After a stop in Libya, the plane reached
Bamako on December 20. The same day, the plane took off and did the same
trip in the opposite direction, flying to Damascus and then Moscow.
According to several sites listing airplane registration numbers, this Tupolev
TU-154M belongs to the Russian Air Force.
A plane that often carries out suspicious flights
This flight between Moscow and Bamako raises additional suspicions for
several reasons. First, because the “governmental sources” cited by Le Monde
in the December 24 article said that about 40 Russian military soldiers had
arrived in Mali “several days ago".

3. Jack Margolin, a member of C4ADS, an NGO dedicated to analysing conflicts
using data, told us that the RA-85042 aircraft belongs to the 223rd Flight
Unit of the Russian Air Force. The United Nations suspects that this branch of
the Russian Air Force has been used on several occasions to transport troops
and supplies for the Wagner Group. The UN documented some of these
suspicious flights in a report published in March 2021 about clashes that have
taken place in Libya over the past few years.
In 2020, the Wagner group and several of its subsidiaries used several Tupolev
TU-154M planes from the 223rd unit of the Russian Air Force, according to this
report.
Figure 2 Russian plane RA-85042 (on the right) parked at Bangui airport, with its registration number visible
The report documents several Russian planes travelling between Damascus and
Libya in early 2020, a time when the Wagner Group was receiving new
supplies. One of those planes was RA-85042. Between January 4 and 6, 2020,
the plane carried out two trips between Benghazi Airport in Libya and the
Russian military base in Latakia, Syria.
Flightradar24 also shows that in 2021, RA-85042 made several trips to Syria
and Libya, two combat zones in which Wagner is known to operate. The RA-
85042 also landed in the Central African Republic after a stop in Syria. On
October 2, 2021, it was photographed in the airport in Bangui, the Central
African capital. Russian military instructors with links to Wagner have been

4. training the Central African army since 2018 and, on December 15, 2021, the
European Union suspended its training missions of Central African soldiers
because of “a lack of assurance that Central African soldiers won’t go on to be
employed by Wagner mercenaries".
Margolin says these flights to Libya and the Central African Republic only add
to ongoing suspicions.
“We can’t definitively cross out the possibility that these planes transported
other types of cargo,” he said. “But the path that they took from Syria and the
fact that they are part of the 223rd Air Unit are, for me, the most solid proof that
I have seen that Wagner could be deploying in Mali.”
Not an isolated incident:
Other flights from Russia to Bamako, aside from the RA-85042 flight on
December 20, 2021, have also been recorded. On September 30, the Gerjon
Twitter account tracked another Russian plane going to Bamako. After taking
off from Russia, this plane stopped in Egypt before flying on to Mali.
The next day, the official Twitter account of the Malian armed
forces announced the arrival of four new combat helicopters as well as new
ammunition – purchased from Russia by the Malian government. Photos show a
helicopter being carried inside an Antonov 124-100 plane. While this delivery
was carried out by the Russian army and not the Wagner Group, it shows the
rising influence of Russia in terms of security in Mali.
Other videos posted on October 7 and November 19 show a Russian airplane of
the same model in the same place in Bamako Airport. The first image shows
helicopters on the tarmac next to the Antonov. The second shows Malian
soldiers unloading the plane next to two white men. The FRANCE 24
Observers team was not able to determine the date when these two videos were
filmed.