‘Callous’: Are Malian troops and Russian mercenaries attacking civilians?

Six or seven bodies, perhaps more, were captured on grainy camera footage lying still in the scorching desert heat. Wet, red spots in the sand and belongings scattered across the landscape were signs of what had happened. A pair of jeans that had been dirtied in the sand, oddly without their owner, was captured as the camera moved back and forth.

Northern Mali was in February. The group lying dead in the sand were reportedly returning from a wedding in the Gao region when they were attacked, not by armed groups, but allegedly by the Malian army and allied Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group. At least 20 people, including children and elderly people, were killed when they were traveling in two vehicles.

In a rare move, Mali’s military administration promised to “investigate” soldiers who allegedly participated in the killings as a furore spreads among the rights movement. Weeks later, there aren’t yet any results. The incident, according to analysts, was just one of several reported killings of civilians by state forces in the troubled West African nation. Russian fighters, who have made an inroad into the nation in response to the country’s declining French military presence, are quickly gaining a reputation similar to that of the Malian army, which has long been accused of abuses against civilians.

“The most striking difference with France’s former military presence has been Wagner’s callous strategy, characterised by wanton violence against civilians”, Constantin Gouvy, a Sahel researcher with the international affairs think tank, Clingendael Institute, told Al Jazeera, comparing the Russian fighters with French troops who were once Mali’s main support against invading armed groups before they exited the country in 2021 when Bamako and Paris fell out.

Since then, Mali has also axed an 11, 000-person UN peacekeeping team and turned to Russian paramilitaries exclusively. When they were deployed in 2022, Wagner troops were almost immediately spotted deep in enemy territory, and rights organizations accused them of co-operating with state forces and pro-government ethnic fighter groups in civilian “massacres.” However, analysts say that since August 2023, after the death of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, the fighters appear to have intensified their involvement in Mali and expanded their scope of operations – at the cost of civilian lives.

Bamako has targeted villagers in the north who it perceives to be sympathetic to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) and is determined to weaken armed organizations. However, the conflict with Tuareg organizations, some of whom are fighting for “Azawad,” has become a key focus and has rekindled the north’s decades-long conflict for independence.

The travellers in the Gao convoy from February are believed to have been Tuareg.

Mali’s troubled past

Between 1, 000 and 1, 500 Russian Wagner fighters are on the Malian front lines, which is the group’s main active battleground in the region. In the Central African Republic and Sudan, Wagner soldiers are also stationed.

Russia has sought to have greater control over the group since 2023.

Some experts say Moscow is eager to avoid Wagner getting as powerful as it was under Progozhin, who staged a rebellion that embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior defence officials just months before his death.

Wagner’s Africa operations have since been renamed Africa Corps by Russian defense officials. Analysts who monitor their Telegram channels claim that the fighters have continued to identify themselves as “Wagner.”

Mali’s crisis began in 2012, when coalitions of Tuareg secessionists known collectively as the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) took control of three northern cities – Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao, proclaimed an independent Azawad state, and split Mali into two.

The French military and the UN assisted the then-civilized government. Some rebellious territory was taken back by the two forces. In 2015, the rebels and Bamako signed a fragile peace deal that granted Tuareg separatists some autonomy.

However, the CMA continued to launch low-level attacks. Armed groups like the al-Qaeda-backed Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and the ISIL affiliate in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), which the CMA occasionally collaborates with, grew in power, taxing and attacking civilians, and seizing territory. In 2020, the military, riding a wave of popular anger at the France-backed government, seized power.

France vowed to avoid working with a military administration after the coup. The military was particularly interested in rejecting the Tuareg deal because it posed a threat, according to analysts who were also aware of Paris’ willingness to tamper with it. The fighter groups were then forced to look elsewhere for support.

The only Wagner troops who were willing to aid in the North’s recovery were Antonio Giustozzi, a researcher at the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) in the United Kingdom. He claimed that the group is well-known among international mercenary organizations for its appetite for high-risk warfare, such as the fighter strategies required in remote Sahelian territory.

“The priority for the Malian government was always the north because they felt those guys got too much autonomy, and they didn’t like how cozy they were getting with the French”, he said.

proving their worth

Fighting was ongoing in Mali when Prigozhin died in a plane crash in late 2023. As the Russian government changed its operations, some analysts predicted Wagner’s operations in West Africa would drastically decrease. These rumors were fueled by the recall of about 100 fighters from Burkinabe to Ukraine in late 2023.

Giustozzi said Wagner’s future was unclear for some months. Ali was unreliable in dealing with a military force that was largely under Russian control. Moscow also had two issues: one, it was wary of the group and did not want it to regain its former strength; the other, it would lose access to the Sahel, where it has significant influence, and also the millions of dollars in security payments.

Eventually, a compromise was reached, the RUSI expert said: Wagner would stay on for the fighting, and Russian military officials would oversee noncombat deployments, such as training and maintaining equipment. Similar missions are being performed by the Russian military in Burkinabe and Niger.

According to analysts, Wagner, who is currently under the leadership of Ivan Aleksandrovich Maslov, has been subjected to pressure to show Bamako it can deliver despite the internal turmoil, citing its doubled combat activities since then. In the last quarter of 2023, after Russia’s direct takeover of the group, Wagner’s activities in Mali doubled compared with the previous quarter, according to analysis by conflict monitor ACLED. In 2024, that trend continued.

No one else is willing to do Wagner’s, Giustozzi said. Russian fighters are active in remote parts of northern Mali, close to the Algerian border, where there is little air support or possibilities for medical evacuation. Most mercenary organizations would balk at this, he said, but Wagner fighters are particularly rugged and violent, like other mercenaries.

Mounting abuses

Wagner’s assistance allowed Mali’s army to defeat the rebels in significant numbers.

The government coalition regained control of Kidal in the late 20th century. In February 2024, government forces also retook the Inathaka gold mine, the largest artisanal gold mine in the north which had been controlled jointly by armed groups and Azawad rebels. High-ranking rebel leaders have also been killed by government airstrikes.

As the military, Wagner troops, and pro-government fighter groups increase their military operations, civilian lives are at risk. Where armed groups killed about 400 people in total in 2024, Wagner and the Malian military killed more than 900 people, according to ACLED.

According to a report from The Washington Post, civilians fleeing Mali’s north to Mauritania arrive with “white men in masks” and horror stories. According to experts, entire communities have been destroyed as a result of women being tortured and abused, men being killed, people being burned alive, and communities being destroyed.

Human Rights Watch, in a December report, revealed that between May and December, the Malian army and Russian forces “deliberately killed at least 32 civilians, including 7 in a drone strike, forcibly disappeared 4 others, and burned at least 100 homes in military operations in towns and villages in central and northern Mali”.

Additionally, the rights groups claimed that ISGS and JNIM were responsible for numerous civilian deaths.

When French troops were present in Mali, they had some flaws. A French air raid in January 2021 killed 19 civilians taking part in a wedding. Additionally, Mali’s army is frequently implicated in killing civilians.

Wagner has also suffered a significant blow to Malian forces. Last July, the coalition suffered its biggest defeat yet, when a unit was ambushed by a joint force of CMA fighters and armed groups in northern Tinzouaten. Wagner soldiers had numerous deaths or captures.

In the aftermath, Mali blasted Ukraine for providing the Tuareg with intelligence assistance in order to reclaim Russia. It also cut ties with Kyiv.

According to experts, Wagner still seems determined to keep Moscow and Bamako happy despite its military debacles.

According to Gouvy, a researcher for the Clingendael Institute, “they are a relatively low-cost involvement that brings in money, minerals, and geopolitical sway,” implying that Wagner and Moscow were likely to collaborate at a time when Western sanctions have hampered revenue.

Source: Aljazeera