Russian mercenaries from the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group working alongside Mali’s armed forces have killed dozens of civilians in the West African country since December. The killings include those from drone strikes during a wedding celebration and later a funeral in February that resulted in the death of at least 14 people, including four children, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.
Mali has fought an insurgency for more than a decade against Islamist groups, including those allied with al Qaeda and the Islamic State. French troops pulled out of the country in August 2022 in the wake of military coups that soured relations between Paris and Bamako, Mali’s capital.
The Mali government expelled a U.N. support mission there and said it would withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States, which provided a rare opportunity for abuse victims to seek justice through its court system.
Mali’s ruling junta has increasingly looked toward Russia to provide it with security assistance.
“Mali’s Russian-backed transitional military government is not only committing horrific abuses, but it is working to eliminate scrutiny into its human rights situation,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Authorities in Mali should work with independent experts to monitor human rights violations and ensure that those responsible are held to account, Ms. Allegrozzi said.
Witnesses told Human Rights Watch investigators that Malian armed forces and Wagner Group mercenaries were responsible for “serious abuses” during counterinsurgency operations against Islamist armed groups.
“They said that in most of the operations, foreign, non-French-speaking armed men described as ‘white’ or ‘Wagner’ took part,” Human Rights Watch said.
In some cases, the military operations were carried out mostly by Wagner fighters, the nongovernmental organization said.
The Islamist armed groups also have committed serious abuses in Mali, including the execution of hundreds of people accused of collaboration with government forces. They have raped women and children, planted improvised explosive devices in villages, and looted and burned property, Human Rights Watch said.
“Whatever we choose is bad, wherever we go is to face suffering,” one local villager told HRW investigators. “The jihadists are brutal and have imposed the way of Islam on us, but the military and Wagner (fighters) who are supposed to protect us … only kill, loot and burn.”
The Wagner Group was formed in Russia by former Vladimir Putin confidant Yevgeny Prigozhin. It was one of the major fighting forces inside Ukraine until Prigozhin fell out of favor with the Kremlin. He staged an abortive coup against the government in protest of how the war in Ukraine was being handled.
Prigozhin and nine other people died in a 2023 private jet crash north of Moscow. U.S. officials said the crash was likely caused by a bomb on the plane.