ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Dozens of Wagner mercenaries were killed by jihadis and rebels over the weekend in northern Mali in what one analyst described on Monday as the largest battleground blow to the shadowy Russian group in years. At least two others were taken captive.
Approximately 50 Wagner fighters in a convoy were killed in an al-Qaida ambush, which was joined by rebels who were in pursuit, along the border with Algeria, said Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a security think tank, who said he counted bodies in a video of the aftermath. The mercenaries had been fighting mostly Tuareg rebels alongside Mali's army when their convoy was forced to retreat into jihadi territory and ambushed south of the commune of Tinzaouaten, Nasr said.
Wagner confirmed in a Telegram statement on Monday that some of its fighters as well as Malian troops were killed in a battle with hundreds of militants. The mercenary group did not say how many of its fighters were killed. Mali's army said it lost two soldiers and 20 rebels were killed.
In a statement over the weekend, al-Qaida asserted that 50 Wagner fighters were killed in its attack meant to “avenge the massacres committed in the center and north” of Mali in the yearslong battle against the extremists. The Tuareg rebels said an unspecified number of the mercenaries and Malian soldiers surrendered to them.
The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the video Nasr cited.
“This is really important. It’s never happened before on African soil and it will change the dynamics," Nasr said. “They (Wagner) won’t be sending any more wild expeditions like this near the border with Algeria. They had been bragging about how well they were doing and how strong they are, but they don’t have the manpower to do this for long or to hold on territory to secure deployments.”
Russia has capitalized on the deteriorating relations between the West and coup-affected Sahel nations in West Africa to send fighters and assert its influence. Wagner has been active in the Sahel — the vast expanse south of the Sahara Desert — as the mercenaries profit from seized mineral riches in exchange for their security services.
Wagner has been present in Mali since late 2021 following a military coup, replacing French troops and international peacekeepers in helping to fight militants who have threatened communities in the central and northern regions for more than a decade. At the same time, Wagner has been accused of helping to carry out raids and drone strikes that have killed civilians.
The group has had an estimated 1,000 fighters in Mali.
Since helping Mali's forces to regain control of the key northern town of Kidal, Wagner mercenaries have been overconfident and overstretched, said independent analyst John Lechner.
He said failures like the weekend ambush are the reason why the Wagner brand was retained in Mali. “Large losses or setbacks are attributed to private military companies," he said. "Victories to the (Russian) ministry of defense.”
Mednick reported from Dakar, Senegal. Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.
People stand near an improvised memorial to Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and others who died in a plane crash with him last year, near the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, July 29, 2024. The Russian mercenary group Wagner suffered its heaviest loss in Africa's Sahel region late last week following an attack that was launched separately by both local and al-Qaida-linked rebels. At least 50 Wagner fighters were reported killed in the attack which raised questions about the group's capacity and whether such an attack could pose any setback to its activities. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
What's in a name change, after all?
The water bordered by the Southern United States, Mexico and Cuba will be critical to shipping lanes and vacationers whether it’s called the Gulf of Mexico, as it has been for four centuries, or the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump ordered this week. North America’s highest mountain peak will still loom above Alaska whether it’s called Mt. Denali, as ordered by former President Barack Obama in 2015, or changed back to Mt. McKinley as Trump also decreed.
But Trump's territorial assertions, in line with his “America First” worldview, sparked a round of rethinking by mapmakers and teachers, snark on social media and sarcasm by at least one other world leader. And though Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put the Trumpian “Gulf of America” on an official document and some other gulf-adjacent states were considering doing the same, it was not clear how many others would follow Trump's lead.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum joked that if Trump went ahead with the renaming, her country would rename North America “Mexican America.” On Tuesday, she toned it down: “For us and for the entire world it will continue to be called the Gulf of Mexico.”
Map lines are inherently political. After all, they're representations of the places that are important to human beings — and those priorities can be delicate and contentious, even more so in a globalized world.
There’s no agreed-upon scheme to name boundaries and features across the Earth.
“Denali” is the mountain's preferred name for Alaska Natives, while “McKinley" is a tribute to President William McKinley, designated in the late 19th century by a gold prospector. China sees Taiwan as its own territory, and the countries surrounding what the United States calls the South China Sea have multiple names for the same body of water.
The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of “Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The government of Iran — formerly Persia — threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps. Many Arab countries don’t recognize Israel and instead call it Palestine. And in many official releases, Israel calls the occupied West Bank by its biblical name, “Judea and Samaria.”
Americans and Mexicans diverge on what to call another key body of water, the river that forms the border between Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Americans call it the Rio Grande; Mexicans call it the Rio Bravo.
Trump's executive order — titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” — concludes thusly: “It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes. The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past.”
But what to call the gulf with the 3,700-mile coastline?
“It is, I suppose, an internationally recognized sea, but (to be honest), a situation like this has never come up before so I need to confirm the appropriate convention,” said Peter Bellerby, who said he was talking over the issue with the cartographers at his London company, Bellerby & Co. Globemakers. “If, for instance, he wanted to change the Atlantic Ocean to the American Ocean, we would probably just ignore it."
As of Wednesday night, map applications for Google and Apple still called the mountain and the gulf by their old names. Spokespersons for those platforms did not immediately respond to emailed questions.
A spokesperson for National Geographic, one of the most prominent map makers in the U.S., said this week that the company does not comment on individual cases and referred questions to a statement on its web site, which reads in part that it "strives to be apolitical, to consult multiple authoritative sources, and to make independent decisions based on extensive research.” National Geographic also has a policy of including explanatory notes for place names in dispute, citing as an example a body of water between Japan and the Korean peninsula, referred to as the Sea of Japan by the Japanese and the East Sea by Koreans.
In discussion on social media, one thread noted that the Sears Tower in Chicago was renamed the Willis Tower in 2009, though it's still commonly known by its original moniker. Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg, renamed its Market Street to Martin Luther King Boulevard and then switched back to Market Street several years later — with loud complaints both times. In 2017, New York's Tappan Zee Bridge was renamed for the late Gov. Mario Cuomo to great controversy. The new name appears on maps, but “no one calls it that,” noted another user.
“Are we going to start teaching this as the name of the body of water?” asked one Reddit poster on Tuesday.
“I guess you can tell students that SOME PEOPLE want to rename this body of water the Gulf of America, but everyone else in the world calls it the Gulf of Mexico,” came one answer. “Cover all your bases — they know the reality-based name, but also the wannabe name as well.”
Wrote another user: “I'll call it the Gulf of America when I'm forced to call the Tappan Zee the Mario Cuomo Bridge, which is to say never.”
FILE - President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - Peter Bellerby, the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, holds a globe at a studio in London, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - A boat is seen on the Susitna River near Talkeetna, Alaska, on Sunday, June 13, 2021, with Denali in the background. Denali, the tallest mountain on the North American continent, is located about 60 miles northwest of Talkeetna. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)
FILE - The water in the Gulf of Mexico appears bluer than usual off of East Beach, Saturday, June 24, 2023, in Galveston, Texas. (Jill Karnicki/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)