Mali’s army and suspected Russia-linked mercenaries committed ‘new atrocities,’ rights group says

By ZANE IRWIN and SAM MEDNICK
Associated Press

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Human Rights Watch says it has found evidence of new summary executions, lootings, forced disappearances and other abuses committed in Mali by the army suspected Russia-linked Wagner group mercenaries. The report released Monday is based on 40 phone interviews, including witnesses, and a review of a video “showing evidence of abuses by Malian soldiers and associated foreign fighters.” HRW says the atrocities happened in Mali’s central region and that several dozen civilians were summarily executed or forcibly disappeared since December 2022. This comes weeks after Mali ousted the United Nations peacekeeping mission, which investigated human rights abuses.