The Australian government said the militant group poses a "real" and "credible" threat to country. The group is already banned in the US, Israel, and Germany.

Colonel Assimi Goïta, who took power in Mali in an August 2020 coup, has been slow to put in place a promised transition to civilian rule. Now under international sanctions, the country has been gripped by nationalist and pan-African fever for several weeks. Relations with former colonial power France, which has deployed thousands of soldiers as part of an anti-jihadist force for nearly a decade, are strained to the point that Mali recently expelled the French ambassador. Meanwhile, the ruling junta in Bamako is welcoming new allies: members of the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group. Their presence has already been reported in certain areas of the country.

Who are the 'Wagner Group' fighters?

Al Qaeda's affiliate in Mali claimed it has killed four mercenaries from Russia's private military Wagner group in clashes over the weekend.

Among the EU's latest package of Russian sanctions, members of the Wagner Group mercenary company were included for alleged crimes committed in Africa. The group's exact African footprint is disputed, but it's growing.

More than 20,000 people have reached Italy's shores this year and the government says the influx is deliberate. It now wants NATO's help.

In his first remarks since launching — and ending — an insurrection against Russian military leaders over the weekend, Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin said the aim was to avoid the destruction of the mercenary force.

The Wagner Group's attempted insurrection has drawn attention to how far Chinese President Xi Jinping is willing to go to support his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine war is in the spotlight now. The Wagner Group operates in Africa too. So, could the fall out between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russian leader Vladimir Putin spill over into Africa?

One of the Wagner Group boss' biggest complaints was about how Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu was running the Ukraine war. But little has been said about Shoigu's future — as yet.

There's evidence that mercenaries from Russia's Wagner Group operate in at least four African countries: Sudan, the Central African Republic, Mali and Libya.

Poland has recently warned of possible provocations coming from the mercenary group currently based in neighbouring Belarus.