Putin’s botched African adventure

I n early August more than 200 crates of manuscripts arrived in Timbuktu, the city in Mali famous for its ancient scholarship. The papers were squirrelled away in 2012 to protect them from jihadists. For the ruling junta, which took power in a coup in May 2021, and the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit that came a few months later, the manuscripts’ return is proof of success. They claim the insecurity that has plagued Mali for more than a decade, and which the West ostensibly did too little to stop, is at last being tackled.