{"id":431190,"date":"2025-12-07T15:07:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T15:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431190\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T15:07:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T15:07:35","slug":"witnesses-describe-abuses-by-russias-africa-corps-as-it-fights-in-mali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/431190\/","title":{"rendered":"Witnesses describe abuses by Russia’s Africa Corps as it fights in Mali"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOUANKARA, Mauritania (AP) \u2014 A new Russian military unit that replaced the Wagner mercenary group<\/a> is carrying out abuses including rapes and beheadings as it teams up with Mali<\/a> \u2018s military to hunt down extremists, dozens of civilians who fled the fighting have told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The Africa Corps<\/a> is using the same tactics as Wagner, the refugees said, in accounts not reported by international media until now. Two refugees showed videos of villages burned by the \u201cwhite men.\u201d Two others said they found bodies of loved ones with liver and kidneys missing, an abuse the AP previously reported<\/a> around Wagner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a scorched-earth policy,\u201d said a Malian village chief who fled. \u201cThe soldiers speak to no one. Anyone they see, they shoot. No questions, no warning. People don\u2019t even know why they are being killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fulani<\/p>\n

\n Fulani community members who have recently fled violence in Mali, take refuge in Makhal Oulad Zeid, Mauritania, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

Fulani community members who have recently fled violence in Mali, take refuge in Makhal Oulad Zeid, Mauritania, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

\n A village chief who fled northern Mali\u2019s scorched earth policy of Africa Corps, sits in Douankara, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

A village chief who fled northern Mali\u2019s scorched earth policy of Africa Corps, sits in Douankara, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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West Africa\u2019s vast Sahel region has become the deadliest place in the world for extremism, with thousands of people killed. The military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating the fighters affiliated with al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n

When the Africa Corps replaced Wagner six months ago, weary civilians hoped for less brutality. The United Nations says<\/a> they have been abused by all sides in the conflict.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But refugees described a new reign of terror by Africa Corps in the vast and largely lawless territory, and legal analysts said Moscow is directly responsible.<\/p>\n

The AP gained rare access to the Mauritanian border, where thousands of Malians have fled in recent months as fighting intensified. It spoke with 34 refugees who described indiscriminate killings, abductions and sexual abuse. Most spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are the same men, paid by the government, and continue the massacres. There is no difference between Wagner and Africa Corps,\u201d said the village chief.<\/p>\n

Malian authorities have never publicly acknowledged the presence of Wagner or Africa Corps. But Russian state media in recent weeks have published reports from Mali, praising Africa Corps for defending the country from \u201cterrorists,\u201d and Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the unit is active \u201cat the request of the Malian authorities,\u201d providing ground escorts, search-and-rescue operations and other work.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry did not respond to AP questions.<\/p>\n

Calling locals \u2018dogs\u2019 in Russian<\/p>\n

It was early morning and Mougaloa was preparing sweet black tea when she heard gunshots. Seconds later, two cars pulled up in front of her tent, filled with masked white men shouting in a foreign language.<\/p>\n

A herder from northern Mali, she has witnessed her share of horrors over the last decade of violence \u2014 but she said no one had been as ferocious as these men.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A herder moves livestock through the refugee camp in Mbera, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

A herder moves livestock through the refugee camp in Mbera, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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Armed men had come before, Mougaloa said. Usually the family would flee when they heard them coming. But three months ago, they were caught.<\/p>\n

She said the men arrived with Malian soldiers and grabbed her 20-year-old son, Koubadi. The Malians asked him whether he had seen militants. When he said no, they beat him until he fainted.<\/p>\n

Then the men slit his throat as Mougaloa watched, powerless.<\/p>\n

She said the family fled but the armed men found them again in late October.<\/p>\n

This time, they didn\u2019t ask questions. They wore masks and military uniforms. They took everything the family had, from animals to jewelry.<\/p>\n

And they kept repeating one word, \u201cpes\u201d \u2014 a derogatory term for dog in Russian.<\/p>\n

They dragged Mougaloa\u2019s 16-year-old daughter, Akhadya, as she tried to resist. Then they spotted Mougaloa\u2019s older daughter, Fatma, and lost interest in Akhadya.<\/p>\n

They took Fatma into her tent. Without thinking, Mougaloa took Akhadya\u2019s hand and started running, leaving Fatma behind. They have not heard from her since.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were so scared,\u201d Mougaloa said, trembling. \u201cWe are hoping she will get here at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Moyme,<\/p>\n

\n Moyme, who fled Mali in fear of the Malian Army and its Russian allies, poses for a portrait Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in a camp in Mbera, Mauritania where she has found refuge. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

Moyme, who fled Mali in fear of the Malian Army and its Russian allies, poses for a portrait Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in a camp in Mbera, Mauritania where she has found refuge. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

\n A Fulani woman who fled violence in Mali sits at a camp in Fassala, Mauritania, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, where she has found refuge. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

A Fulani woman who fled violence in Mali sits at a camp in Fassala, Mauritania, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, where she has found refuge. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A woman is helped outside a treatment room of a health clinic in Douankara, Mauritania, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

A woman is helped outside a treatment room of a health clinic in Douankara, Mauritania, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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Experts say it\u2019s impossible to know how many people are being killed and assaulted in Mali, especially in remote areas, while journalists and aid workers have increasingly limited access to the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of people raped, attacked, killed. Families are separated, there is no doubt about that,\u201d said Sukru Cansizoglu, the representative in Mauritania for the U.N. refugee agency. But \u201cit is sometimes difficult to really pinpoint who are the perpetrators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Civilians, under pressure from both the militants and the Africa Corps and Malian fighters, are \u201cbetween a rock and a hard place,\u201d said Heni Nsaibia from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED.<\/p>\n

If people don\u2019t follow JNIM evacuation orders, they face reprisals, Nsaibia said. But if they flee, Mali\u2019s army and Africa Corps consider them JNIM accomplices.<\/p>\n

Mougaloa\u2019s family experienced it firsthand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t tell the army you saw jihadists, the army will kill you,\u201d she said. \u201cBut if you do tell them, the jihadists will find you and kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions around the Africa Corps<\/p>\n

Reported abuses against civilians intensified when Wagner joined the underfunded Malian army in 2021. According to private security analysts, Mali paid Russia about $10 million a month for Wagner\u2019s assistance. While the group was never officially under the Kremlin\u2019s command, it had close ties to Russia\u2019s intelligence and military.<\/p>\n

Moscow began developing the Africa Corps as a rival to Wagner after its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin<\/a> was killed in a plane crash in 2023 following his brief armed rebellion in Russia that challenged the rule of President Vladimir Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the terms of Mali\u2019s agreement remain the same for Africa Corps. Much is unknown about its operations, including the number of fighters, which analysts estimate at around 2,000.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A four-year-old girl who was injured during a drone strike in Mali, is treated in a health clinic in Douankara, Mauritania, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

A four-year-old girl who was injured during a drone strike in Mali, is treated in a health clinic in Douankara, Mauritania, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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Not all Africa Corps fighters are Russian. Several refugees told the AP they saw Black men speaking foreign languages. The European Council on Foreign Relations in a recent report said the unit recruits from Russia, Belarus and African states.<\/p>\n

Africa Corps and Malian forces have increased their joint offensives in northern Mali, home to substantial gold reserves, according to the Critical Threats project by the American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n

While civilian deaths blamed on the Russians have dropped this year \u2014 447 so far compared with 911 last year \u2014 the numbers might not reflect the full scale, Nsaibia said: \u201cPeople are more scared to report, in order to avoid putting their own safety on the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fewer outsiders are watching. A U.N. peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in 2023 under government pressure. Mali\u2019s withdrawal this year from the International Criminal Court has further complicated efforts to track abuses. The ICC has been investigating serious crimes committed in Mali since 2012, when fighting with armed groups began.<\/p>\n

Eduardo Gonzalez Cueva, a U.N. independent expert on human rights in Mali, told the AP he asked the country\u2019s military authorities twice this year for permission to visit, and sent them a questionnaire. They did not respond.<\/p>\n

Mali\u2019s government considers investigations into alleged abuses \u201cinconvenient and harmful to the morale of the troops,\u201d Cueva said in his latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in March, noting that \u201cthe escalation of serious human rights violations and abuses by all actors is accelerating due to impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Only the name has changed\u2019<\/p>\n

When Wagner announced its departure from Mali, some refugees decided to return home. Many found that nothing had changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the same thing,\u201d said one, Bocar, who spoke with resignation as he cradled his youngest son. He said he had seen bodies with organs missing.<\/p>\n

He said he had counted all the men killed or abducted by Wagner and Mali\u2019s army in his hometown of Lere before he first fled in 2023. He said the list reached 214 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the name was changed,\u201d he said of Africa Corps. \u201cThe clothes, the vehicles, the people stayed the same. The methods stayed the same, and even became worse. So we left home again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Afay,<\/p>\n

\n Afay, a Malian refugee, shows images of her burned village after Africa Corps razed the marketplace to the ground, she said while sitting at a camp in Douankara, Mauritania, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

Afay, a Malian refugee, shows images of her burned village after Africa Corps razed the marketplace to the ground, she said while sitting at a camp in Douankara, Mauritania, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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\"Bakary<\/p>\n

\n Bakary Bah, who fled Mali in 2023 when more than a dozen people including his brother where killed in his village, sits for a portrait in a camp in Mbera, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

Bakary Bah, who fled Mali in 2023 when more than a dozen people including his brother where killed in his village, sits for a portrait in a camp in Mbera, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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Other refugees described being so terrified of the Russians that at any noise resembling an engine, they would run or climb the nearest tree.<\/p>\n

One woman said she was so frantic to flee Wagner fighters that she once left her 3-month-old baby at home. When she returned hours later, her daughter was laying in front of the house, her tiny hands clenched into fists.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so scared, I forgot I had a baby,\u201d the woman said, clutching her daughter.<\/p>\n

Legal experts said the shift from Wagner to Africa Corps makes the Russian government directly accountable for fighters\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the rebranding, there is striking continuity in personnel, commanders, tactics and even insignia between Wagner and Africa Corps,\u201d said Lindsay Freeman, senior director of international accountability at the UC Berkeley School of Law\u2019s Human Rights Center, which has monitored the conflict in Mali.<\/p>\n

Because Africa Corps is directly embedded in Russia\u2019s Ministry of Defense, it can be treated as an organ of the Russian state under international law, Freeman said. \u201cThat means any war crimes committed by Africa Corps in Mali are, in principle, attributable to the Russian government under the rules on state responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Life has lost its meaning\u2019<\/p>\n

When white men came to the village of Kurmare less than a month ago, Fatma said everyone fled but her.<\/p>\n

At the sound of gunshots, her 18-year-old daughter had a seizure and fell, unconscious. Fatma stayed with her as the men looted the village and shot at people running away.<\/p>\n

The men went from house to house, taking women\u2019s jewelry and killing men. When they entered Fatma\u2019s house, they thought her daughter was dead and left her alone.<\/p>\n

\"Men<\/p>\n

\n Men from northern Mali who fled attacks by the Malian Army and Africa Corps sit in a tent at a makeshift camp in Douankara, Mauritania, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

Men from northern Mali who fled attacks by the Malian Army and Africa Corps sit in a tent at a makeshift camp in Douankara, Mauritania, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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\"Fatma<\/p>\n

\n Fatma holds a photo of her daughter who died when fleeing their Malian village, in Douankara, Mauritania, where Fatma has found refuge, Thursday, Nov. 6 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)\n <\/p>\n

Fatma holds a photo of her daughter who died when fleeing their Malian village, in Douankara, Mauritania, where Fatma has found refuge, Thursday, Nov. 6 2025. (AP Photo\/Caitlin Kelly)<\/p>\n

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Fatma did not want to talk about what the white men did to her.<\/p>\n

It \u201cstays between God and me,\u201d she muttered, trembling.<\/p>\n

When they left her village hours later, she found the body of her son, who was shot at his shop. Then she found her injured brother. As she set off for Mauritania, her daughter, who continued having seizures, died as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the conflict erupted, I had strength, I had courage,\u201d Fatma said faintly. Now, \u201clife has lost its meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her family is with the Fulani ethnic group, which Mali\u2019s government accuses of being affiliated with the militants. Some Fulani, long neglected by the central government, have joined the fighters. Civilians are often targeted by both sides.<\/p>\n

But Fatma said no one killed or injured in her village belonged to any armed group. \u201cI don\u2019t know what we did to deserve it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Now, in Mauritania, the memories haunt her. She has trouble sleeping and breathing, and clutched repeatedly at her chest. She spends her time looking at the only photograph she has of her daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just someone who is alive and appears as a person that I was \u2014 but is not, in fact, living,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DOUANKARA, Mauritania (AP) \u2014 A new Russian military unit that replaced the Wagner mercenary group is carrying out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":431191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7779,200305,200307,57,200306,6604,362,200303,24531,50,80,257,3658,1206,274,96,103,107,200304],"class_list":{"0":"post-431190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-burkina-faso","10":"tag-eduardo-gonzalez-cueva","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-heni-nsaibia","13":"tag-international-news","14":"tag-legal-proceedings","15":"tag-mali","16":"tag-moscow","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-russia","20":"tag-russia-government","21":"tag-united-nations","22":"tag-vladimir-putin","23":"tag-war-and-unrest","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-yevgeny-prigozhin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115678915379952257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}