The Malian army and proxies from the Russian Wagner group invested the Intahaka gold mine during the weekend. This is a vast artisanal gold panning site located in the Malian Gourma, commune of N'Tillit, approximately 80 kilometers from Gao, in the North.
Thousands of miners from all over Mali search for gold by digging deep holes in the ground. The objective of Wagner's deployment to the site is to secure the site and prevent non-state armed groups from benefiting from this windfall.