Malian armed forces have been accused of killing at least 20 civilians and burying their bodies in mass graves near the village of Mamba in central Mali, according to local sources and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
The alleged incident took place last Monday when 22 individuals were arrested by soldiers during a weekly market in Diafarabe. They were reportedly transported across the Niger River to Mamba, where they were executed. “They dug a mass grave and slit all their throats before putting them in it,” a local source told AFP. Only one man is believed to have escaped and alerted the community to the massacre.
FIDH said 25 people were taken away by boat and later found decapitated in two mass graves. The group accused the army of carrying out a “summary execution” of civilians, many of whom were from the Fulani ethnic group—a community that has frequently been accused by authorities of harbouring ties to terrorist militants.
The army issued a statement on Friday saying it was taking the allegations “very seriously” and promised that police would conduct an investigation to determine the truth of the claims. Meanwhile, residents of Diafarabe held marches on Tuesday and Wednesday demanding answers about the whereabouts and fate of those detained.
“They are not here to protect us. They came to finish off all the men in the village,” said a relative of one of the victims.
This is not the first time the Malian army has faced such accusations. Just three weeks ago, bodies were discovered near a military base in western Mali shortly after civilians—primarily Fulani—were detained by soldiers and operatives of the Russian Wagner paramilitary group. A similar incident occurred in February, when around 20 civilians were reportedly killed after their vehicles were targeted in northern Mali by army forces and mercenaries.
Since seizing power in successive coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali’s military leadership has severed ties with its former colonial ruler France and turned instead to Russia for military support. However, the new alliance has been dogged by accusations of widespread human rights abuses, particularly in regions plagued by Islamist insurgencies and intercommunal violence.
Mali has endured over a decade of instability since terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State launched an insurgency in 2012, prompting an ongoing crisis marked by military crackdowns and widespread displacement.