Human Rights Watch Documents Mali Drone Strikes, Executions as Civilian Toll Mounts

Mali's army and its Russian military partners carried out apparently indiscriminate drone strikes on a livestock market and a rural health center this summer, killing and wounding dozens of civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Monday. The rights group also documented the torture and execution of captured government soldiers by Islamist and separatist fighters, describing a conflict in which grave laws-of-war violations are being committed by nearly every armed actor while the world looks away.

The report focuses on the period since July, when Malian forces and the Russia-controlled Africa Corps — the state formation that replaced the Wagner Group last year — intensified counterinsurgency operations in central and northern Mali. Al Jazeera and other outlets covering the report's release, including wire coverage picked up by Times Live, said investigators verified evidence remotely after Malian forces and their JNIM and separatist opponents each stepped up attacks following a wave of coordinated strikes on the capital in April.

Human Rights Watch said an apparent military drone struck a health center in Talahandak, in the northern Kidal region, around 4 a.m. on July 29, partially destroying the building. A 45-year-old health worker at the clinic told investigators the facility was not used by armed groups, and witnesses said no fighters were present. Three weeks later, on August 19, a drone circled for roughly 30 minutes over a cattle market in Tombonkore, in the Bandiagara region, before striking it, killing six men and wounding at least 20 others. A 24-year-old survivor said his leg was "completely shredded" in the attack. Mali's army chief of staff said the following day that forces had hit a "terrorist hideout" and killed about 20 "terrorists," a claim Human Rights Watch said it could not corroborate and that conflicts with witness accounts.

The toll in numbers

Citing data from the conflict monitor ACLED, Human Rights Watch said Malian forces and Africa Corps carried out 49 air strikes between April and August, killing 89 civilians — more than double the 22 strikes and 44 deaths recorded over the same five months in 2025. Separately, ACLED figures cited in the report attribute 268 civilian deaths this year to the Malian armed forces and 134 to JNIM, the al-Qaeda-linked Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin. Researchers interviewed 30 people, including 16 witnesses, community leaders, journalists and a Malian soldier, between late July and late September, and geolocated videos and photographs of drone debris to verify specific strikes.

A war fed by Russian reinforcements

The violence traces back to Mali's 2020 and 2021 military coups, after which the junta turned to Moscow for security support, first through Wagner Group mercenaries and then through Africa Corps once Russia's defense ministry absorbed Wagner's African operations. Insurgent attacks escalated sharply this year: on April 25 and 26, JNIM and Tuareg-led separatists of the Azawad Liberation Front launched coordinated assaults on Bamako's airport, the garrison town of Kati and other cities, killing Mali's defense minister. The UN's human rights office said at the time it was deeply troubled by the worsening human rights situation across Mali, citing extrajudicial killings, abductions and a food crisis caused by insurgent blockades. The African Union's Peace and Security Council convened a dedicated briefing on Mali on April 28, reaffirming support for the transitional government while expressing deep concern over the coordinated attacks and civilian displacement.

Civilians caught between the fighters

Human Rights Watch's new report describes civilians killed by both sides of the counterinsurgency. In Niono, in the central Ségou region, soldiers on July 12 shot and killed five girls aged 10 to 13 who were harvesting rice about three kilometers from town; the soldiers later apologized to the families, saying they had mistaken the children for attackers, but Human Rights Watch said it was unaware of any investigation or reparations as of mid-September. In Djenné, in the Mopti region, members of a militia allied with the army killed two Fulani men near the town's main mosque on July 27 and abducted and killed a third Fulani man the next day; residents told researchers no JNIM fighters were present and said the men were targeted because of their ethnicity.

Insurgent groups were also accused of atrocities. After JNIM and separatist fighters ambushed an army and Africa Corps convoy near Tabrichat, in the Gao region, on July 18, at least 19 soldiers who had surrendered were tortured and executed, according to the report, which cites a surviving soldier who said more than 50 of his comrades were unaccounted for. Both JNIM and the Azawad Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the ambush itself but disputed responsibility for the killings of the captured men.

Reaction and what comes next

"Mali's army, its Russian allies and the armed groups fighting them are committing grave laws-of-war violations while international organizations and governments largely stand by," said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Human Rights Watch's senior Sahel researcher.

Confronted with the Tabrichat allegations, JNIM's Sharia Committee wrote to Human Rights Watch on September 30 acknowledging that captured soldiers were killed but said it did not give the order, and declined to say whether the fighters involved would face discipline. The Azawad Liberation Front's spokesperson wrote on September 20 that the group categorically rejects any allegation that its forces carried out the execution. Mali's defense ministry did not respond to a letter Human Rights Watch sent on August 5 outlining its findings and questions, the report said.

Human Rights Watch is calling on the African Union's Peace and Security Council to hold a dedicated session on civilian protection in Mali, adopt a communiqué condemning abuses by all parties to the conflict, and press Malian authorities to open independent investigations with support from AU human rights experts. With Africa Corps personnel expected to remain embedded with Malian forces for the foreseeable future and JNIM and the separatist front continuing to contest territory in the north and center of the country, rights monitors say the civilian toll documented this year is likely to keep climbing absent outside pressure on both the junta and the insurgent groups it is fighting.