Rights groups: In Mali, Wagner mercenaries help local forces carry out raids and attacks

Mali, along with neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, has been battling jihadist groups, including those linked to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), for more than a decade.

However, after military coups in these countries, the juntas expelled the French forces stationed there and turned to Russian mercenaries to help provide security.

But after Wagner’s mercenaries arrived in Mali in 2021, violence in the country intensified. The Malian junta, aided by Russian mercenaries, has stepped up operations in the country with drone strikes and raids that have injured and killed civilians.

According to residents of the Sachel region, which includes Mali, the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a mysterious plane crash last year did not affect the actions of Russian mercenaries.

“The Russian-backed transitional military government in Mali is not only committing horrific abuses, but is also trying to keep the human rights situation in Mali out of control,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on Thursday. ).

In January, government forces backed by Wagner stormed a village near a military base in central Mali and detained 25 people, including four children, HRW said in just one of many cases.

Later that day, their bodies were found blindfolded and with gunshot wounds to the head, the organization said in a statement.

Earlier this week, another human rights organization, Amnesty International, released a report saying that two drone strikes in northern Mali killed at least 13 civilians, including seven children between the ages of 2 and 17.

The report also states that a pregnant woman victim of the incident suffered a miscarriage a few days after the attack.

In addition, HRW documented several drone strikes in central Mali. One of them, targeting a wedding party, killed at least seven people, including two minors. The next day, a drone strike targeted a funeral for those killed in an earlier attack.

Earlier this month, the ruling juntas of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso announced a joint security force to combat rising extremist violence in the Sachel region.

This comes after the junta has taken steps to distance itself from other regional and Western powers that do not share their approach and instead rely on Russian support for security.

Although the military has promised to end the insurgencies in their territories after ousting elected governments, conflict analysts say violence has intensified under their regimes.