Human Rights Watch says Mali’s military and armed groups perpetrate civilian abuses

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on Monday accusing Mali’s armed forces and their Russian-aligned paramilitary partners of committing grave violations of international humanitarian law, while opposition militias have carried out similar atrocities. The U.S.-based watchdog urged the African Union’s Peace and Security Council to act swiftly to halt the ongoing abuses.

The report, based on interviews with thirty witnesses, human‑rights defenders, community leaders, journalists and a Malian soldier between late July and mid‑September, says the military and the Russia‑controlled Africa Corps have killed and wounded dozens of civilians in both attacks and custody. It also documents that rebel groups have tortured and executed captured Malian soldiers.

HRW identified two apparently indiscriminate drone strikes carried out by the Malian military. The first, on 29 July, hit a health centre in the Kidal region of the northeast, while the second, on 19 August, struck a market in Bandiagara in central Mali, killing six people and injuring at least twenty.

The watchdog further reported an operation in the Segou region of the south where soldiers killed five girls, and a separate incident in the Mopti region where members of the Dozo militia, allied with the army, killed three civilians with impunity.

In an attack on a military convoy in the Gao region on 18 July, the jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat al‑Islam wal‑Muslimin (JNIM) and separatist fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front captured at least 19 soldiers, tortured them and executed many. JNIM admitted that prisoners were killed but denied ordering the deaths, while the Azawad Liberation Front confirmed fighting alongside Russian forces on that day but denied executing soldiers.

HRW’s findings were corroborated by data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, which recorded 49 air strikes by Malian forces and the Africa Corps between April and August, resulting in 89 civilian deaths. This marks a sharp increase from the 22 strikes and 44 civilian deaths reported for the same period last year.

The organization said it sent a letter outlining its findings and questions to Mali’s defence minister on 5 August but has not received a reply.