Mali Civilians Pay as Army, Africa Corps Face Abuse Claims

Eight civilians died in an apparent military drone strike on Guélédié village on Sept. 16, and at least six others were injured, Human Rights Watch said. Relatives of four men detained at a military base also paid a combined 2.8 million CFA francs to secure their release. The allegations concern Mali’s armed forces and the Russian-controlled Africa Corps, as fighting has renewed in central Mali.

Civilians at the strike site

Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 15 people remotely between August and September: three witnesses to the strike, four former detainees at the Sévaré base and eight members of nongovernmental organisations. The group said it wrote to Mali’s and Russia’s defence ministers in early October for responses, but neither replied.

Witnesses said an apparent military drone dropped a munition on civilians on the outskirts of Guélédié at about 10 a.m. The eight men killed were between 25 and 40 years old. Residents said they had gathered around a tree where a man sold internet access through Starlink, a service JNIM fighters often used to support operations.

A 40-year-old witness said the drone flew over the village for about an hour before the strike. “The drone passed over the village at about 9 a.m. and came back at least four times. It was white and had long, thin, straight wings. It would spin around, disappear, and come back again.” Human Rights Watch said the description broadly matched larger drones that the Malian government is known to use.

More than 100 JNIM fighters were in Guélédié, witnesses said, but none died in the strike. Fighters warned residents on WhatsApp about a possible strike on the Starlink location, then left with many civilians. Fourteen civilians stayed behind. “The explosion was deafening, really strong,” a 30-year-old villager said. “I saw very thick black smoke rising from the Starlink connection area.”

A 52-year-old health worker reached the scene about an hour later and found six men dead and seven injured. One injured man died there. The health worker said the Ténenkou military base commander rejected his offer to take the injured to the Ténenkou Referral Health Center and warned him not to help. The injured were evacuated later. Doctors Without Borders said its staff treated four seriously injured people, all with burns over their entire bodies; one died shortly after arrival.

On Sept. 17, the armed forces chief of staff said military units had “spotted terrorist elements concealed under vegetation northeast of Guélédié” with “war equipment and satellite communication devices,” then “neutralized” them and destroyed their equipment. Human Rights Watch said the junta has increasingly used airstrikes against armed groups. Rights groups, media and investigative organisations have documented strikes that killed civilians.

Detention and payment for release

On May 7, soldiers and Africa Corps fighters apprehended a 30-year-old civilian at his home in Guirowel. They arrested three Quranic students, ages 32, 37 and 40, in Thy on July 4, after a JNIM attack on a military position. The four men said soldiers and fighters took them to the Hamadoun Bocary Barry army base in Sévaré and held them incommunicado in a shipping container about 20 meters long, with no windows, toilet or washing facilities.

The men described a sweltering, unventilated container where dozens of detainees stayed. They said guards gave them a small amount of poor-quality food once a day, denied necessary medical care and verbally abused them. “We got a small piece of bread and sometimes beans and half a bottle of water once a day,” the 32-year-old said. “The heat was unbearable. On the first day, we were 27, but over the days we reached more than 70 people.”

Three men said Malian soldiers and Africa Corps fighters tortured them in a room near the base entrance and interrogated them to extract confessions about alleged links with JNIM. The man from Guirowel said two Russian soldiers drowned him in a barrel of water, revived him with electric shocks when he lost consciousness, burned his buttocks with hot plastic and lit a cloth on his back.

Detainees died in the container after torture, the men said. The 40-year-old said, “Eight people died during my detention.” The military released the three men from Thy on July 20 and the Guirowel man on Aug. 6. Relatives reportedly paid 1.8 million CFA francs for the three Thy men’s release and 1 million CFA francs for the Guirowel man’s release.

Rights claims and official response

Human Rights Watch said Mali’s military and Africa Corps had detained hundreds of civilians during counterinsurgency operations, holding many unlawfully at military bases. Its senior Sahel researcher, Ilaria Allegrozzi, said civilians were “bearing the brunt” of the junta’s failure to rein in abusive forces and allies. She said Russian officials should also face accountability.

According to the report, the Malian army’s offensive followed coordinated attacks across Mali in late April by JNIM and the Azawad Liberation Front. Malian forces and Africa Corps killed civilians, including many children, and destroyed civilian property and health facilities in airstrikes and other attacks, it said.

The report cited international humanitarian law protections for civilians and people deprived of liberty, including bans on torture and requirements to take feasible precautions in attacks. It said denying medical care to wounded people or detainees can amount to a war crime, and individuals responsible for serious violations may face prosecution.

In March, the United Nations Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of the independent expert on Mali to assess the human rights situation and assist national authorities in promoting human rights and the rule of law. Allegrozzi called for credible investigations and said the council should increase its scrutiny of the situation.