Amnesty International has accused Mali’s army and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group of killings, torture and other abuses against civilians during joint military operations in the country.
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A recently published report by the human rights organization documents the deaths of at least 34 civilians in seven areas of the Ségou, Mopti and Timbuktu regions between June 2023 and December 2025.
According to Amnesty International’s findings, none of the identified victims was directly taking part in fighting at the time they were killed.
Some civilians, the report says, were shot while trying to flee or after they had been arrested. In other cases, the victims’ bodies were found with their throats slit, while some people were allegedly burned alive or burned after death.
Mali’s military authorities, which took power after the coups of 2020 and 2021, turned toward Russia and began cooperating with the Wagner Group at the end of 2021.
Amnesty International estimates that, before Wagner was replaced in June 2025, around 1,000 fighters from the Russian group were stationed in Mali. At that time, Wagner was replaced by the Africa Corps, a mercenary structure linked to Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
The organization stresses that the latest accusations are part of a series of allegations made for years against Malian forces and their Russian allies. This comes as the government in Bamako has increasingly relied on Moscow for military assistance in its fight against jihadist groups in the Sahel.
One of the episodes investigated concerns an operation carried out on February 12, 2025, in Tin Adanta, a settlement in the Timbuktu region.
According to the testimonies collected, four people were killed during a joint patrol by the Malian army and Wagner. A survivor told Amnesty International that his two sons and a cousin had been arrested and later killed.
Amnesty suspects that such cases may be part of a broader pattern in which civilians are accused of links to armed groups without evidence that they took part in fighting.
Most of the documented victims belonged to the Fulani, Arab and Tuareg nomadic and pastoralist communities. In some cases, according to the organization, suspicions of links to armed groups were based solely on the individuals’ ethnicity and the fact that they lived in areas where rebels operated.
The report also includes two drone strikes carried out by the Malian army in the Timbuktu region, in which at least 23 people were killed, including five children.
The first strike hit a market in Ejdair in March 2025, while the second targeted a family home in Tangata in November of the same year.
Amnesty International said it had found no evidence of armed groups or military targets being present in either of the two cases.
According to the testimonies collected, the bombing of the market in Ejdair killed 16 civilians and wounded seven others. The Malian army later said it had struck a concentration of people it described as “terrorists” at a transit camp northwest of Lere, claiming to have eliminated 11 militants.
However, Amnesty International’s analysis concluded that the location given by the army matched the market that had been attacked.
Marceau Sivied, Amnesty International’s regional director for West and Central Africa, said that, if confirmed, these findings would constitute direct attacks on civilians and non-military objects and should therefore be investigated as war crimes.
The organization also gathered testimony from 15 men who said they had been tortured or mistreated during joint patrols by Malian forces and Wagner, as well as while being detained at the military bases in Leré and Nabala.
According to Amnesty International, their testimonies relate to cases of torture involving at least 30 people. Five detainees allegedly died at the military bases as a result of torture or poor detention conditions.
The survivors said they had been hung by their arms from metal bars, suffocated, beaten with rods and iron sticks, and subjected to electric shocks.
Amnesty said the testimonies collected showed that Wagner personnel were responsible for most of the reported torture. In some cases, Malian soldiers were allegedly present, acted as interpreters or watched the abuses without intervening.
The report states that the detainees were not brought before a court and were unable to contact lawyers or family members. The duration of the detentions ranged from one day to four months.
Amnesty International has called on Mali’s authorities to investigate the allegations and clarify the chain of command under which foreign forces operate in the country.
The organization has also urged the government in Bamako to publish its agreement with the Africa Corps and establish an independent mechanism to monitor and investigate possible abuses by Malian forces and their foreign partners.
Amnesty said it had sent its findings to the Malian authorities on August 3, but had received no response by the time the report was published.
Although Wagner announced its official withdrawal from Mali in June 2025, the Russian military presence in the country has not ended.
According to Amnesty International, the Africa Corps has replaced Wagner and continues its activities in Mali under the control of Russia’s Ministry of Defense. The organization added that allegations of human rights abuses have continued to be reported after this structural change.
