Mali: army, JNIM jihadists, rebels accused of grave abuses against civilians by HRW
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report alleging that the JNIM (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims), their allies in the Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA), the Malian army, and the Russian auxiliaries of Africa Corps have all “committed serious abuses against civilians” since the escalation of hostilities in Mali following the coordinated attacks of April 25 and 26.
In its findings published on June 29, the organisation states that “all parties have illegally attacked civilians” and that some also “destroyed and looted their homes and businesses.” The clashes sparked by the JNIM and FLA offensive against several positions of the ruling junta have reportedly left at least 13 civilians dead and 25 wounded in Gao and Kidal.
A 38-year-old resident of Kidal recounted being injured during the fighting. “I was hit by bullets in the right shoulder and left thigh,” he said, unable to identify whose fire it was as “shots came from every direction.”
Executions, strikes and destruction denounced
HRW further accuses JNIM of setting ablaze more than 40 civilian vehicles between May 6 and 21 on routes leading to Bamako, and of “publicly executing a man” in the town of Tonka. “We recovered his body (…) with a bullet to the head,” a local told the NGO.
The report also points to the Malian army, which it says killed 38 civilians—including 23 children—during operations targeting Peul communities in central Mali. Two suspected drone strikes are mentioned, in Guimbé and Tené. “I heard a noise from the sky then an explosion,” a resident of Tené recounted. “We saw that the damage was enormous, with dead and wounded.”
To document these events, HRW says it conducted 34 remote interviews and analysed satellite imagery, videos and photographs. The NGO states it contacted the Malian authorities but received no reply. JNIM responded that “there can be no war without human costs,” while the FLA insisted it had “taken sufficient measures so that civilians are not collateral victims of the fighting.”
