HRW Reports Mali Drone Strike Killed Eight Civilians

An apparent military drone strike killed eight civilians and injured at least six in Guélédié, central Mali, on Sept. 16, Human Rights Watch said. The group also reported alleged torture and deaths among detainees held by Malian forces and Russia-controlled Africa Corps personnel.

The allegations concern the conduct of Mali’s armed forces and their Russian-controlled allies during renewed fighting. Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 15 people remotely between August and September: three witnesses to the strike, four former detainees at an army base in Sévaré, and eight members of nongovernmental organisations. In early October, the group sent letters to Mali’s and Russia’s defence ministers seeking comment, but neither replied.

The strike in Guélédié

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

A drone circled over the village for about an hour, witnesses reported. A 40-year-old man said: “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 the Malian government is known to use.

Witnesses said JNIM had a base in Guélédié, with more than 100 fighters present, but none was among the casualties. JNIM fighters warned residents through WhatsApp of a possible strike on the Starlink location, then left with many civilians. Fourteen civilians remained when the munition hit. “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 health worker arrived about an hour later and found six men dead and seven injured, “with their bodies burned”; one injured man died at the scene. The worker said the Ténenkou military base commander refused his offer to transport the injured to the Ténenkou Referral Health Center and warned him not to help them, calling them JNIM fighters. The injured were eventually evacuated. Doctors Without Borders said its staff treated four “seriously injured” people with “burns over their entire bodies”; one died shortly after arriving.

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 verified a video of the aftermath and located the site about 600 meters northeast of the village centre.

Detention and alleged torture

Human Rights Watch said Malian forces and Africa Corps personnel detained civilians during counterinsurgency operations. A civilian was apprehended at his home in Guirowel on May 7, the group reported. Three Quranic students, aged 32, 37 and 40, were arrested in Thy on July 4, after a JNIM attack on a military position there.

The four men said officials held them incommunicado at the Hamadoun Bocary Barry army base in Sévaré, inside a shipping container about 20 meters long with no windows, toilet or washing facilities. They described extreme heat, poor food, inadequate water and denied medical care. The 32-year-old said the number of people in the container rose from 27 to more than 70. Detainees used a bucket that overflowed because guards didn’t empty it, he said.

Three men alleged Malian soldiers and Africa Corps fighters tortured them in a room near the base entrance to force confessions of links to JNIM. One said Russian soldiers drowned him in a barrel and used electric shocks when he lost consciousness. The men also reported deaths among detainees in the container; one said eight people died during his detention. Human Rights Watch said relatives reportedly paid 1.8 million CFA francs for the release of the three men from Thy and 1 million CFA francs for the man from Guirowel.

Human Rights Watch 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 be held accountable. The report said parties to Mali’s armed conflict are bound by international humanitarian law, including protections against torture and requirements to take feasible precautions to distinguish military targets from civilians. Denying medical care to wounded people or detainees can constitute a war crime, it said.

The United Nations Human Rights Council renewed the mandate of the independent expert on Mali in March to assess the human rights situation and assist national authorities. Allegrozzi urged concerned governments and international institutions to press for credible investigations. She said the council should increase its scrutiny.