Reports from Mauritania paint a disturbing picture of ongoing brutality in Mali, where a new Russian military unit, known as the Africa Corps, stands accused of perpetrating severe abuses against civilians. Refugees fleeing the escalating conflict describe a reign of terror, echoing and in some cases surpassing the atrocities previously attributed to the Wagner mercenary group, which the Africa Corps has replaced.
Eyewitness accounts gathered from dozens of Malian refugees in Mauritania detail a horrifying array of abuses, including rapes, beheadings, and the indiscriminate killing of non-combatants. Many describe a “scorched-earth policy,” where armed individuals show no mercy, shooting civilians without warning or explanation. Harrowing testimonies include victims whose bodies were discovered with organs missing—a tactic previously associated with foreign mercenary forces in the region. Some refugees presented visual evidence of their villages reduced to ashes by “white men” operating alongside Malian soldiers.
The shift from the Wagner group to the Africa Corps, occurring roughly six months ago, brought little relief to a population already suffering immensely. Weary civilians who hoped for a reduction in brutality have found that the methods of violence persist, with some describing the new unit as merely a rebranding. A village elder who escaped the violence lamented, “The soldiers speak to no one. Anyone they see, they shoot. No questions, no warning. People don’t even know why they are being killed.”
The Sahel region of West Africa has become a global epicenter for extremist violence, with militant groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State wreaking havoc. Mali, alongside Burkina Faso and Niger, has turned to Russia for military assistance, moving away from its traditional Western allies. While the Russian Foreign Ministry has confirmed the Africa Corps’s presence, describing its role as providing ground escorts and search-and-rescue operations “at the request of the Malian authorities,” Malian officials have remained publicly silent on the unit’s operations.
The human cost of this conflict is profound. One mother recounted the agonizing loss of her 20-year-old son, Koubadi, whose throat was slit by masked men while she watched, powerless. She later endured the abduction of her 16-year-old daughter, Fatma, leaving her with another daughter whose hand has remained clenched for eight months since fleeing the horrors. Another woman shared her chilling experience of fleeing so frantically from armed groups that she inadvertently left her three-month-old baby behind, only to return hours later to find her infant with tiny, clenched fists, a vivid symbol of pervasive fear.
Legal scholars assert that the direct integration of the Africa Corps into Russia’s Ministry of Defense makes the Russian government directly accountable under international law for any war crimes committed by its personnel in Mali. Despite the change in name, experts note a striking continuity in personnel, command structures, and tactics between the former Wagner group and the Africa Corps, reinforcing the argument of state responsibility.
The ability to accurately assess the scale of atrocities in Mali remains severely hampered. Observers and humanitarian workers face increasingly limited access to the country’s remote areas. Adding to the challenge, a United Nations peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in 2023, and Mali’s subsequent withdrawal from the International Criminal Court further complicates international efforts to investigate and document alleged abuses. A United Nations independent human rights expert on Mali confirmed that requests for permission to visit the country and obtain information regarding human rights violations have gone unanswered by Malian military authorities.
For many who have fled to Mauritania, the situation is tragically unchanged. “Only the name was changed,” remarked one refugee, Bocar, who previously fled his hometown after over 200 people were killed or abducted. “The clothes, the vehicles, the people stayed the same. The methods stayed the same, and even became worse. So we left home again.” Civilians remain trapped between the brutality of extremist factions and the alleged abuses of the Malian army and its Russian allies, facing impossible choices and profound despair.
