From Donbas to the desert: Mali Tuaregs borrow Ukraine's war tactics

From explosive drones to inflatable decoy vehicles, Tuareg rebels in Mali have increasingly turned to tactics learnt from Ukrainian intelligence to strike the west African country's army and its Russian allies.

The tactics are reshaping the balance in the conflict between Mali's junta government and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a pro-independence armed coalition of predominantly Tuareg groups fighting over the Azawad territory in the country's north.

While the Tuaregs have ties to Kyiv, Mali has increasingly relied on Russian mercenaries for help in fighting both the rebels and the jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group roaming the wider Sahel region.

"Perhaps what binds us most to Ukraine is that, like us, it is suffering Russian barbarism and imperialism,