Nairobi – Forces operating under the Russian government’s control, identified as Africa Corps, are accused of executing nine civilians, including four children, and subjecting dozens of others to severe beatings in central Mali during early July 2026. Human Rights Watch has brought these allegations to light. Furthermore, Africa Corps fighters reportedly plundered and set ablaze at least eight residences, purportedly while searching for individuals suspected of affiliations with Islamist armed groups.
On July 10, around 5:00 AM, over 100 Africa Corps combatants, accompanied by several Malian soldiers, stormed the village of Bombori in the Mopti region. Traveling in pickup trucks and on motorcycles, they forcibly entered homes in the Fulani (Peul) quarter, dragging residents outside. At least 80 men and boys were then rounded up under a tree. There, the fighters reportedly assaulted them, interrogated them about alleged connections to Islamist armed groups, and threatened them with death if they withheld information. Six civilians attempting to flee were shot dead, while three others were apprehended and executed, one of whom was decapitated.
“The Malian junta appears to have granted Russian Africa Corps forces carte blanche to kill civilians,” stated Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Malian authorities cannot evade their legal responsibility by allowing Africa Corps to commit atrocities. They must promptly and impartially investigate these abuses and bring all those responsible to justice, including any Malian military personnel implicated.”
Between July 19 and 30, Human Rights Watch conducted remote interviews with 13 individuals, including four direct witnesses to the attack and nine civil society members and community leaders.
Witnesses indicated that Russian forces directed the operation in Bombori, with four Malian soldiers primarily serving as interpreters. “The Russians were in charge… There were more than 100 of them, all in military fatigues and heavily armed,” recounted a 39-year-old villager. “A white man [with] two walkie-talkies seemed to be the leader. Each time he asked a question, he fired into the air.”
Another witness, a 57-year-old butcher, described seeing “seven pickups with machine guns mounted on them, and over 60 motorcycles displaying Malian flags.”
The Al-Qaida-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM or Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, JNIM) has maintained control over Bombori since 2017 and operates a base approximately one kilometer away. Witnesses reported that GSIM fighters had departed the village the day before the attack.
Since 2012, successive Malian governments have struggled against Islamist armed groups. Following the coups in 2020 and 2021, the military junta expelled French and UN forces, subsequently strengthening ties with Russia. Since 2021, the junta has relied on assistance from the Russia-linked Wagner Group for security management. In June 2025, the Wagner Group announced its withdrawal from Mali, claiming its mission was “accomplished.” The armed group was subsequently replaced by Africa Corps, which operates under Kremlin control and comprises largely the same personnel, including many former Wagner combatants and some of its key leaders.
Since 2021, Human Rights Watch has systematically documented widespread abuses perpetrated by the Malian army, the Wagner Group, and Africa Corps during counter-insurgency operations across the nation.
Witnesses recounted that on July 10, Africa Corps forces fired upon civilians fleeing Bombori before detaining and beating men and boys. “I saw two men fall under a hail of bullets,” stated a 40-year-old man. “I looked to my left and saw two motorcycles with two white soldiers; the first one seated on a motorcycle continued to shoot at the two men on the ground.” He added that a Russian fighter then led him to a tree where dozens of men and boys were held at gunpoint. “The Russian fighters pointed their weapons at us, searched our pockets, seized all our phones, and photographed us,” he continued. “One Russian [fighter] kicked us, another struck us with his weapon, and I received several blows to the back and chest… while others continued to bring in men they had arrested in the village.”
The 39-year-old man explained that he had been hiding in his home with his wife and children when three Russian fighters arrived, “took me by the hand and violently forced me outside face down,” before pushing him towards the assembly point. “We were all sitting on the ground, heads bowed,” he recounted. “A Russian fighter struck anyone who looked up with the butt of his rifle.”
The man described how Africa Corps combatants interrogated the detainees: “A Malian soldier translated: ‘Where are the jihadists? Whoever points out a fighter goes home, whoever reveals weapon caches will receive a reward. If you don’t cooperate, we will kill you all!’”
Witnesses reported that Africa Corps forces removed three young men from the group of detainees and drove off with them in a vehicle. “Around 9 AM, they took three young men… and drove them towards the GSIM base,” a 38-year-old man recounted. “Later, we would find them dead.” Residents explained that the three men had occasionally assisted GSIM in collecting “taxes” (“zakat” in Arabic) but were not combatants.
Local residents indicated that GSIM, which has committed widespread abuses across Mali since 2017, had controlled Bombori for nine years, collecting “taxes,” recruiting and training young men, and enforcing Sharia (Islamic law). They noted that the number of Islamist fighters in the village had significantly increased following coordinated GSIM and allied attacks across Mali in April and July. “Since the GSIM offensives, the security situation in our region has changed,” observed the butcher. “Many GSIM fighters, mostly foreigners, joined those who were already here.”
However, witnesses stated that on July 10, GSIM fighters were not present in Bombori. “GSIM fighters left during the night, while everyone was asleep,” the 39-year-old man recounted. “They do not protect us in case of an army attack.”
When Africa Corps departed Bombori around 2 PM, residents recovered the bodies of nine individuals, including five men aged 19 to 34 and four children aged 6 to 17.
The 40-year-old man described that the bodies of the two men shot in front of him exhibited “large, bloody open wounds in the chest and back.” Regarding the three men who were taken away, he stated that “one had been decapitated, his head displayed in the middle of the village… the other two had their throats slit and were tied up, hands behind their backs.”
The 38-year-old man explained that he found “the bodies of two children, both around 6 years old, shot dead next to a burned house” and two other bodies “near the national road [with] signs of bullets to the head and… lying face down next to each other.”
Bombori village comprises one quarter inhabited by the Rimaïbé ethnic group and another by the Fulani. Africa Corps forces reportedly only attacked the Fulani sector. “I remained seated at my brother’s forge, and I had no problems,” observed the butcher, a Rimaïbé. “The attackers did not enter our homes, nor search inside, and no one was arrested or killed in our area.”
GSIM has long focused its recruitment efforts on the Fulani, and Malian governments have conflated the Fulani community with Islamist fighters, leading to severe abuses against the Fulani people.
Africa Corps forces also stole money and jewelry and set fire to at least eight homes belonging to Fulani families whose sons, according to witnesses, were GSIM fighters. “I saw smoke rising from the Fulani quarter towards the mosque,” stated the 57-year-old man. “It was later that I saw they [the attackers] had burned eight huts and also destroyed five grain granaries.”
On August 4 and 5, Human Rights Watch sent letters to the Russian Minister of Defense and to Assimi Goïta, President and Minister of Defense of Mali, respectively, outlining its findings and posing questions. No response has been received to date.
All parties to the armed conflict in Mali are bound by international humanitarian law, including common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and customary laws of war. Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians or civilian property are prohibited, as are murder, cruel treatment, and torture of any person in detention. Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent or who are implicated under command responsibility may face prosecution for war crimes.
“The Bombori massacre is emblematic of the atrocities committed in Mali,” concluded Ilaria Allegrozzi. “Villagers were trapped between an Islamist armed group and the government with its Russian allies, with neither belligerent respecting international law.”