Malian refugees report Russian Africa Corps’ human rights abuses

Mali refugees revealed that the Russian military unit, Africa Corps, has committed many human rights abuses, including rapes and beheadings in partnership with Mali’s military, according to an investigation by AP news on December 7th.

Mali’s military junta, along with Niger and Burkina Faso, which form part of the Alliance of the Sahel States (AES), have recently moved away from Western influence and support to align with Russia.

Subject to military coups, the Sahel states receive military support from Russia in exchange for access to their natural resources. The presence of Russian forces in Mali helped Mali’s President Assimi Goita retain stability in the country, as the Wagner group has been in Mali since 2021 after the coup. The presence of these Russian mercenaries has previously sparked concern for civilians, with the UN calling for an investigation into the Wagner Group’s activities as well.

In June this year, the private military Wagner group was replaced by Russia’s state-owned military group, Africa Corps. The refugees in the investigation have said, “They are the same men, paid by the government, and continue the massacres. There is no difference between Wagner and Africa Corps.” Legal analysts say that Russia is directly responsible for these human rights violations.

One of the refugees reported seeing bodies without organs, and Russian soldiers calling Malian civilians “pes”, which is a derogatory term for dog in Russian. While civilian deaths at the hands of Russian mercenaries have seemingly dropped this year, experts say it is impossible to pin the exact number of deaths as journalists have limited access across the country.

Reportedly, not all the African Corps are Russian either. The representative in Mauritania for the UN refugee agency said, “There is a lot of people raped, attacked, killed. Families are separated, there is no doubt about that,” but “it is sometimes difficult to really pinpoint who are the perpetrators.”

Some reported that they saw black men under masks speaking foreign languages, suggesting that the European Council on Foreign relations’ report stating that Africa Corps recruits come from Russia, Belarus, and African states may be true.

While some Malian refugees, like Bocar, considered returning home after the Wagner Group exited, they expected to see change, but were greeted with the same situation. “Only the name was changed,” he said, referring to the Africa Corps. “The clothes, the vehicles, the people stayed the same. The methods stayed the same, and even became worse. So we left home again.”

With civilians squeezed between insurgents and forceful counter-insurgency efforts, the Sahel retains its global strategic weight as major players like Russia and the West compete for its natural wealth, especially gold.

AP, Maghrebi.org