Mali's shifting alliances fuel a deepening cycle of civilian suffering, HWR says

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the army, allied militias and Islamist armed groups have all committed abuses with impunity since the attacks in northern Mali in April.

Issued on: 01/07/2026 - 14:58Modified: 01/07/2026 - 16:20

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In a new report titled Mali: Grave Abuses Amid Renewed Fighting, published at the end of June, the human rights NGO examines abuses committed in the country by the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), as well as by the Malian army and its Russian proxies from Africa Corps, since the attacks of 25 April.

On that day, jihadists and their partners from the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) killed Defence Minister Sadio Camara and captured the northern town of Kidal.

Since then, the Malian army and its Russian partners from Africa Corps have intensified their "counter-terrorism" operations, while JNIM jihadists have imposed new blockades on civilian populations.

Impunity fuels abuses

Against this backdrop, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has investigated abuses committed by the various parties to the conflict.

The organisation points out that humanitarian law prohibits any deliberate or indiscriminate attack against civilians, and that "long-standing impunity continues to fuel the cycle of abuses against civilians in Mali," according to Ilaria Allegrozzi, Sahel researcher at HRW and author of the report.

She told RFI that she had wanted to focus on the impact of the hostilities on civilians, having initially assumed that most casualties were caused by clashes between JNIM and the FLA on one side, and the Malian army and Africa Corps on the other.

"But in reality, you see in our report that yes, there were casualties in clashes, in Kidal, during the fighting, but most of the people killed were killed by the Malian army, either during counterinsurgency ground operations in the centre of Mali or during the drone strikes that we documented. And that's even more worrying," she added.

HRW called on the UN and the African Union (AU) to support independent efforts to "hold those responsible for serious abuses accountable," as well as a fact-finding mission aimed at laying the groundwork for criminal investigations and prosecutions.

What worries the NGO most is the continued impunity — its primary recommendation is that the crimes be investigated and those responsible brought to justice.

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Renewed fighting

There is no official casualty count for the multiple attacks of 25 April, but HRW offers a partial one: in the cities of Gao and Kidal alone, the clashes reportedly left 13 civilians dead and at least 25 injured.

The HRW report details the violence committed since then.

Between 6 and 21 May, JNIM torched more than 40 civilian vehicles bound for Bamako as part of a blockade imposed on the road to the capital — a conservative figure covering only that two-week period.

On 14 May, FLA spokesman Mohamed El Maouloud Ramadane told Human Rights Watch: "We took sufficient measures so that civilians are not collateral victims of the fighting. We wrote several times to communities located around the city [of Kidal] to tell them to leave and not to approach military sites."

The NGO also points to the public execution of a civilian in Tonka, in the Timbuktu region, on 21 May, and attacks on tanker trucks that since September 2025 have killed drivers, caused severe fuel and electricity shortages, disrupted education, and paralysed daily life.

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Changes of alliance

Successive governments in Mali have battled Islamist and separatist armed groups since 2012.

After coups in 2020 and 2021, General Assimi Goïta seized power, expelled French and UN forces, and strengthened ties with Russia. He also terminated a nine-year peace agreement with predominantly Tuareg armed groups.

In 2024, the al-Qaeda-linked coalition JNIM, seeking to expand Islamist rule across the Sahel, entered into an alliance with the FLA - the Tuareg separatist coalition seeking independence for northern Mali - espite their ideological differences. The two joined forces during the April 2026 offensive.

Meanwhile, the military regime sought the protection of the private Russian group Wagner, now rebranded as Africa Corps, a development analysts say has only deepened the cycle of violence.

"The Malian army has committed abuses against civilians even prior to the arrival of the Wagner fighters, now the Africa Corps," Allegrozzi said.

"But of course things are getting worse because Wagner came to Mali with a very heavy background and a very bad reputation in terms of respect for human rights, with examples in the Central African Republic, in Ukraine, in Libya."