ICC asked to investigate Russian groups war crimes in Africa

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is asked to review a confidential legal brief which argues that the privately owned Russian mercenary Wagner group has committed war crimes in West African nations, according to the Associated Press on June 22nd.

The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC has said that their investigations have been focused on alleged war crimes committed since January 2012, when insurgents seized communities in Northern regions of Mali.

Wagner has been active in several African nations, but most predominantly in Mali. In 2023, the Malian Army and Wagner partners took large chunks of land back from the pro-independence Tuareg movement, which Malian President Assimi Goïta has struggled to control.

The Wagner group has also been influential in combating the rise in jihadist groups and terrorism in the Sahel region.

Governments in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have turned away from western nations and institutions such as France and the UN, towards Russia and its mercenary fighters.

Evidence of war crimes committed by the Wagner group are in the form of videos shared on social media. The videos show men in military uniforms desecrating the bodies of civilians. The videos are extremely violent and gruesome, some alluding to cannibalism according to the Associated Press.

The aim of these videos is to threaten enemies of Wagner and the civilian population, as they face pressure to join up with rising jihadist groups.

These kinds of videos and acts have been brought to public attention and investigated before. In July of 2024, a Telegram channel affiliated with Wagner posted multiple videos of members of the Malian army and the Dozo hunters, a local defence group, committing abuses that allude to cannibalism.

The videos were investigated by the Malian army, with the army chief stating that it was a “rare atrocity” and that “competent services” would identify the offenders, although it is not clear if anyone was identified or apprehended. 

Similar videos have been shared on Telegram and X in other nations, including Burkina Faso whose army also condemned the videos and stated they would launch an investigation.

The leading source of graphic videos and dehumanizing language in the Sahel region has been identified as a Telegram channel named ‘White Uncles in Africa’, who have shared all of the videos taken in Mali as well as original content.

According to the Associated Press, analysts believe that the channel is run by current or former Wagner members, although none have been identified. 

The violation of personal dignity through humiliation and degrading treatment is a war crime under the Rome Statute that created the ICC. Legal experts are arguing that Wagner’s alleged abuse of social media to share degrading videos would therefore qualify as war crimes.

The director of the Technology, Law & Policy program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law, Lindsay Freeman, has stated that there is legal precedent in European courts for charging war crimes against personal dignity based primarily on evidence from social media. 

“The online distribution of these images could constitute the war crime of outrages on personal dignity and the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts for psychologically terrorizing the civilian population,” Freeman stated.

The legal brief that was submitted to the ICC asks the court to investigate both individual members of Wagner and Mali and Russia’s governments for abuses in northern and central Mali between December 2021 and July 2024. 

The abuses in question include extrajudicial killings, torture, mutilation, and cannibalism.

The brief also asks the ICC to investigate the crime of spreading these videos on social media, thereby violating personal dignity. 

Associated Press/Maghrebi