Allies: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Malian counterpart Abdoulaye Diop in Moscow last year
By Rachel Russell & Simon Jones
BBC News
The Ministry of Defence has launched an investigation after emails containing classified information were sent to a close ally of Russia in a typing error.
The emails were intended for the US military, which uses the domain name “.mil”.
But they missed out the letter i, and so the messages went instead to the West African nation of Mali.
Defence officials say the emails did not contain information that could compromise operational security.
The mistake, they said, involved only a small number of emails being sent to Mali, whose email domain is “.ml”.
“We have opened an investigation after a small number of emails were mistakenly forwarded to an incorrect email domain,” an MoD spokesman told PA news agency. “We are confident they did not contain any information that could compromise operational security or technical data.”
The spokesman added that all sensitive information used by the government department was “shared on systems designed to minimise the risk of misdirection”.
“The MoD constantly reviews its processes and is currently undertaking a programme of work to improve information management, data loss prevention, and the control of sensitive information,” the spokesman said.
Some of those emails were believed to have contained sensitive information including passwords, medical records and the itineraries of top officers.
Mali was one of the six African countries promised free grain shipments by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the collapse of the Black Sea deal with Ukraine earlier this month.
Russia’s navy blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports following its invasion in February 2022, trapping 20 million tonnes of grain which were meant for export and creating food shortages in Middle Eastern and African countries.
Mali is also a close Russian ally because Moscow’s Wagner mercenaries have been deployed in the country to fight alongside the army against jihadists.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Mali’s defence minister, air force chief and the deputy chief of staff would be sanctioned for co-ordinating the spread of Wagner in the West African country.
