(Nairobi) \u2013 Mali\u2019s armed forces and the allied Russia-controlled Africa Corps have committed new atrocities against civilians in central Mali during renewed fighting, Human Rights Watch said today.\u00a0
On September 16, 2026, an apparent military drone strike in Gu\u00e9l\u00e9di\u00e9 village, Mopti region, killed eight civilians and injured at least six others. Between May and August, Malian and Africa Corps forces held numerous detainees inhumanely in a metal container at an army base in S\u00e9var\u00e9 town, Mopti region, where many were tortured, including with severe beatings, electric shock, and waterboarding.\u00a0
\u201cCivilians are bearing the brunt of the Mali junta\u2019s failure to rein in its abusive forces and allies,\u201d said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. \u201cRecent atrocities implicate the Malian army as well as Russia-controlled Africa Corps, for which Russian officials should also be held accountable.\u201d
The Malian army\u2019s offensive followed coordinated attacks across Mali by the Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama\u2019at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, JNIM) and the Azawad Liberation Front (Front de Lib\u00e9ration de l\u2019Azawad, FLA) in late April. Malian forces and the allied Africa Corps killed civilians, including many children, and destroyed civilian property and health facilities in airstrikes and other attacks.
Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed fifteen people between August and September, including three witnesses in Gu\u00e9l\u00e9di\u00e9, four former detainees at the S\u00e9var\u00e9 military base, and eight members of nongovernmental organizations. Human Rights Watch sent letters to the Malian and Russian defense ministers in early October but received no responses.
Gu\u00e9l\u00e9di\u00e9
On September 16 at about 10 a.m., an apparent military drone delivered a munition on civilians on the outskirts of Gu\u00e9l\u00e9di\u00e9 village, killing eight men, ages 25 to 40, and injuring six others. The villagers had gathered around a tree, where a man was providing paid internet access via Starlink. Residents said JNIM fighters often used this service to support operations.\u00a0
Witnesses said a drone flew over the village for about one hour before delivering its munition, suggesting that the area was being surveilled. \u201cThe drone passed over the village at about 9 a.m. and came back at least four times,\u201d said a 40-year-old man. \u201cIt was white and had long, thin, straight wings. It would spin around, disappear, and come back again.\u201d This description is broadly consistent with larger drones the Malian government is known to use.\u00a0
Witnesses said that JNIM has a base in Gu\u00e9l\u00e9di\u00e9 and over 100 JNIM fighters were present in the village at the time of the strike, although no JNIM fighters were among the casualties. They also said JNIM fighters alerted the local population via WhatsApp about the possibility of a drone strike at the Starlink location, before leaving the area along with many civilians. Witnesses said that only 14 civilians had remained at the site, continuing to use the connection, when the drone delivered its munition.
\u201cThe explosion was deafening, really strong,\u201d said a 30-year-old villager. \u201cI saw very thick black smoke rising from the Starlink connection area.\u201d
A 52-year-old health worker said he went to the scene about an hour later and found six men dead and seven injured \u201cwith their bodies burned,\u201d one of whom died there. He said he called the T\u00e9nenkou military base commander and that he would take the injured to the T\u00e9nenkou Referral Health Center there. \u201cBut he did not only categorically refuse our evacuating them,\u201d the health worker said. \u201cBut he also warned me not to provide them with any support. For him, they were JNIM fighters and he told me that the drone could not have targeted civilians.\u201d
The injured were eventually evacuated. In a September 24 statement, Doctors Without Borders (M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res, MSF) said its staff at the health center treated four \u201cseriously injured\u201d people with \u201cburns over their entire bodies,\u201d and one \u201cdied shortly after arrival.\u201d
Human Rights Watch verified a video shared by witnesses of the aftermath of the strike and geolocated it to an area about 600 meters northeast of the village center. It shows the bodies of three men, two under a burned and broken tree and one in a nearby pond. Two burned motorcycles and a destroyed solar panel are also visible.
In a September 17 statement, the armed forces chief of staff said that on September 16, military units \u201cspotted terrorist elements concealed under vegetation northeast of Gu\u00e9l\u00e9di\u00e9\u201d with \u201cwar equipment and satellite communication devices,\u201d after which they \u201cneutralized\u201d them and destroyed their equipment.
Mali\u2019s junta has increasingly used airstrikes against armed groups. Human Rights Watch, other human rights groups, and severalmedia and investigative organizations have documented airstrikes that killed civilians.\u00a0
S\u00e9var\u00e9
The Malian military and the Africa Corps have taken hundreds of civilians into custody during counterinsurgency operations across Mali and unlawfully detained many in military bases. Human Rights Watch, other human rights groups, and the media have documented torture at several bases.
On May 7, soldiers and Africa Corps fighters apprehended a 30-year-old civilian at his home in Guirowel, a village in a JNIM-controlled area in Mopti region. On July 4, they arrested three Quranic students, ages 32, 37, and 40, in Thy village, Mopti region, following a JNIM attack on a military position there.
The four men later said the forces took them to the Hamadoun Bocary Barry army base in S\u00e9var\u00e9, holding them incommunicado in a shipping container about 20 meters long with no windows, toilet, or washing facilities, in extreme heat without ventilation, alongside dozens of other detainees. The men said they received a small amount of poor-quality food once a day, were denied necessary medical care, and were verbally abused.
\u201cWe got a small piece of bread and sometimes beans and half a bottle of water once a day,\u201d said the 32-year-old man. \u201cThe heat was unbearable. On the first day, we were 27, but over the days we reached more than 70 people. We relieved ourselves in a bucket, it was always full and spilling onto the floor. They didn\u2019t empty it.\u201d
The men said they identified Malian soldiers by their uniforms and languages, including French, Bambara, and Fulfulde. They said Africa Corps fighters had \u201clight skin\u201d and spoke a foreign language they did not understand.\u00a0
Three of the men said Malian soldiers and Africa Corps fighters repeatedly tortured them in a room in a building near the base entrance, alongside S\u00e9var\u00e9\u2019s main road, so they could hear traffic sounds. The room had a metal bed, a barrel filled with water, a table, and electric wires on the floor, where the men said they were tortured and interrogated to confess to their alleged association with JNIM.\u00a0
The man from Guirowel said Malian and Africa Corps personnel tortured him twice for about two hours each. \u201cI almost lost my life when two Russian soldiers drowned me in a barrel of water,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery time I lost consciousness, I was resuscitated with an electric shock and drowned again. \u201cThey burned my buttocks with hot plastic, and they lit a cloth on my back. They forced me to give information about JNIM, and to admit I was a fighter.\u201d
The 37-year-old man said a Malian soldier tied him to a bed and demanded: \u201cTell us everything or we\u2019ll kill you.\u201d Then \u201cthe blows started raining down on my buttocks and back. \u2018Talk!\u2019 they said to me. [A] soldier choked my neck and banged my head against the bed. I don't remember anything after that.\u201d
The 40-year-old man said soldiers tied his feet to a bed and threatened to kill him if he withheld information about JNIM fighters. \u201cI was hit on my buttocks, fire [put] on my back,\u201d he said. \u201cA soldier held my penis and put electricity on it,\u201d while another \u201cpoured water on my back and hit me.\u201d
The men said several detainees died in the container following torture. \u201cWhen a prisoner was about to die, we would bang on the door to alert the guards,\u201d said the 40-year-old man. \u201cThey told us to inform them only when a person died. They had no mercy. Eight people died during my detention.\u201d
The military released the three men from Thy on July 20 and the man from Guirowel on August 6. Relatives reportedly paid the military 1.8 million CFA francs (about US$3,000) for the three Thy men and 1 million CFA (about $1,800) for the Guirowel man to secure their release.
All parties to Mali\u2019s armed conflict are bound by international humanitarian law, notably\u00a0Common Article 3 and Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 as well as customary laws of war. Parties must take all feasible precautions before an attack, including verifying that the target is a military objective. Attacks with no military objective or that do not distinguish between civilians and military personnel are unlawfully indiscriminate.\u00a0
Anyone deprived of their liberty must be treated humanely in all circumstances and protected against murder, torture, and cruel, humiliating, and degrading treatment. Denying medical care to the wounded or detainees can be a war crime. Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent or as a matter of command responsibility may be prosecuted for war crimes.
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.
\u201cThese recent abuses should serve as a stark reminder that concerned governments and international institutions should press the Malian authorities to conduct credible investigations into military abuses and bring those responsible to justice,\u201d Allegrozzi said. \u201cThe UN Human Rights Council should increase its scrutiny of the situation in Mali and take steps to prevent further abuses."
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