HRW says Russian paramilitaries killed 9 civilians in Mali

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Human Rights Watch on Thursday said Russian paramilitaries from Africa Corps, which is supporting Mali in its fight against insurgents, killed nine civilians, including four children, in an operation last month. More than 100 Russian fighters, accompanied by several Malian soldiers, stormed a village in the central Mopti region at dawn on July 10 looking for jihadists, HRW said.

Bombori had been under the control of the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) since 2017 and its fighters had a base nearby, it added. "They broke into homes in the ethnic Fulani neighbourhood, dragged people out, and rounded up at least 80 men and boys under a tree," the rights group said in a statement.

The Fulani ethnic group is regularly accused of swelling the ranks of jihadists across much of west Africa. "There, the fighters beat the men and boys, interrogated them about alleged links to Islamist armed groups, and threatened to kill them if they withheld information," HRW said. "They shot and killed six civilians who tried to flee, and detained and executed three others, one of whom they beheaded," it added.

After the Africa Corps fighters left, residents recovered nine bodies, five men and four children aged between six and 17, HRW said. The NGO said it had remotely interviewed 13 people, including four witnesses to the attack and nine civil society members and community leaders.

The Sahel country has been wracked since 2012 by a serious security crisis, notably fuelled by violence from jihadists allied to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, along with criminal gangs and armed separatists.

Mali's ruling junta, which came to power in two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, has turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia, both militarily and politically.