(Nairobi) – Russian government-controlled Africa Corps’ forces summarily killed nine civilians, including four children, and beat dozens of others in central Mali in early July 2026, Human Rights Watch said today. Africa Corps’ fighters also looted and burned at least eight homes, while presumably looking for people with ties to Islamist armed groups.
On July 10 at about 5 a.m., more than 100 Africa Corps’ fighters, accompanied by several Malian soldiers, stormed Bombori village in Mopti region in pickup trucks and on motorbikes. They broke into homes in the ethnic Fulani neighborhood, dragged people out, and rounded up at least 80 men and boys under a tree. There, the fighters beat the men and boys, interrogated them about alleged links to Islamist armed groups, and threatened to kill them if they withheld information. They shot and killed six civilians who tried to flee, and detained and executed three others, one of whom they beheaded.
“The Malian junta appears to have given Russian Africa Corps forces a green light to kill civilians,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Malian authorities cannot evade legal responsibility by leaving the atrocities to the Africa Corps. They need to promptly and impartially investigate these abuses, and hold all those responsible to account, including Malian military personnel.”
Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed 13 people between July 19 and 30, including 4 witnesses to the attack and 9 civil society members and community leaders.
Witnesses said Russian forces led the operation in Bombori and were accompanied by four Malian soldiers acting primarily as interpreters. “The Russians were in charge … they were over 100, all dressed in military uniforms and heavily armed,” said a 39-year-old villager. “A white guy [with] two walkie talkies looked like the commander. Every time he asked a question, he fired into the air.”
Another witness, a 57-year-old butcher, said he saw “seven pickup trucks with machine guns mounted on top and over 60 motorbikes, which carried Malian flags.”
The Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, JNIM) has controlled Bombori since 2017 and has a base about a kilometer away. Witnesses said its fighters left the village the night before the attack.
Since 2012, successive Mali governments have fought Islamist armed groups. After coups in 2020 and 2021, the military junta expelled French and United Nations forces and consolidated ties with Russia. Since 2021, the junta had relied on the Russia-linked Wagner Group for security assistance. In June 2025, the Wagner Group announced that it was withdrawing from Mali after having “accomplished” its mission. The armed group was replaced by the Kremlin-controlled Africa Corps, which has approximately the same troop strength, including many former Wagner fighters and some of the group’s core leadership.
Human Rights Watch has documented widespread abuses by the Malian army, the Wagner Group, and Africa Corps during counterinsurgency operations across Mali since 2021.
Witnesses said that on July 10, Africa Corps forces shot at civilians fleeing Bombori before detaining and beating men and boys. “I saw two men fall under gunfire,” said a 40-year-old man. “I looked to my left and saw two motorcycles with two white fighters, the one in front kept firing at the two men as they lay on the ground.” He added that a Russian fighter then escorted him to a tree where dozens of men and boys were being held at gunpoint. “Russian fighters pointed their weapons at us, searched our pockets, took all our phones, and took pictures of us,” he said. “A Russian [fighter] kicked us, another beat us with his gun, and I was hit several times in my back and chest … while other fighters kept bringing in men they had arrested in the village.”
The 39-year-old man said he hid in his home with his wife and children until three Russian fighters “violently dragged me outside, threw me face down on the ground,” and pushed him to the gathering point. “We were all sitting with our heads down,” he said. “A Russian fighter hit anyone who looked up with the butt of his rifle.”
As Africa Corps fighters questioned the detainees, the man said: “A Malian soldier translated: ‘Where are the jihadists? Whoever shows us a fighter, goes home, whoever shows us the weapons will have a reward. If you don’t collaborate, we’ll kill you all!”
Witnesses said Africa Corps forces removed three young men from the detainee group and drove them away in a vehicle. “Around 9 a.m., they took three young men … and led them towards the JNIM base,” a 38-year-old man said. “Later we found them dead.” Residents said the three men had occasionally helped JNIM collect “taxes” but were not fighters.
Residents said that JNIM, which has committed widespread abuses across Mali since 2017, has controlled Bombori for nine years, collecting “taxes,” recruiting and training young men, and enforcing Sharia (Islamic law). They reported that the number of Islamist fighters in the village increased significantly following April and July coordinated attacks by JNIM and its allies across Mali. “Since JNIM launched its offensives, the security situation in our area has changed,” said the butcher. “Many [JNIM] fighters, mostly foreigners, have joined those who were already here.”
Witnesses said, however, that on July 10, JNIM fighters were not in Bombori. “JNIM fighters left during the night while everyone was sleeping,” said the 39-year-old man. “They don’t protect us in case of an army attack.”
When the Africa Corps left Bombori at about 2 p.m., residents recovered the bodies of nine people, including five men, ages 19 to 34, and four children, ages 6 to 17.
The 40-year-old man said the bodies of the two men shot in front of him had “large open bloody wounds on the chest and back.” He said that of the three men taken away, “one had been beheaded, his head exposed in the middle of the village … the two others had their throats slit and hands tied behind their back.”
The 38-year-old man said he found “the bodies of two children, both about 6 years old, shot in front of one of the burned homes,” and two other bodies “by the national road [with] gunshot wounds in the head and … lying face down next to each other.”
Bombori has one neighborhood inhabited by ethnic Rimaïbé and the other by the Fulani. Africa Corps forces only attacked the Fulani area. “I sat at my brother’s forge, and I didn’t have any problems,” said the butcher, a Rimaïbé. “The attackers didn’t enter our houses, nor did they search inside, and nobody was arrested or killed in our neighborhood.”
JNIM has long concentrated its recruitment efforts on the Fulani, and Malian governments have conflated the Fulani community with Islamist fighters, leading to serious abuses against them.
Africa Corps forces also looted money and jewelry, and burned at least eight homes belonging to Fulani families whose sons, witnesses said, were JNIM fighters. “I could see smoke rising from the Fulani neighborhoods near the mosque,” said the 57-year-old man. “Then I saw that they [the assailants] had set eight huts on fire and had also destroyed five granaries.”
On August 4 and 5, Human Rights Watch sent letters to the Russian and Malian defense ministers, with findings and questions, but received no response.
All parties to Mali’s armed conflict are bound by international humanitarian law, notably Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions 1949 and customary laws of war. Deliberate or indiscriminate attacks against civilians or civilian property are prohibited, as well as murder, cruel treatment, and torture of anyone in custody. Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent or as a matter of command responsibility may be prosecuted for war crimes.
“The Bombori massacre is emblematic of atrocities across Mali,” Allegrozzi said. “Villagers were caught between an Islamist armed group and the government with its Russian allies, with none of the belligerents abiding by international law.”
