Amnesty International published a report on 29 September 2026 titled 'Nul n'est épargné' ('No one is spared'), documenting war crimes committed by Malian armed forces (FAMa) and Wagner Group personnel along the Mali-Mauritania border during joint military operations between June 2023 and December 2025. The organisation says at least 34 civilians, none taking direct part in hostilities, were unlawfully killed in seven localities across the Ségou, Mopti and Timbuktu regions, with victims deliberately shot while fleeing or after arrest, and some killed by having their throats slit or being burned alive or post-mortem. Malian authorities did not respond to findings transmitted to them on 3 August 2026, nor had they responded at the time of publication.
Among the documented cases, a joint FAMa-Wagner patrol killed four people in the small hamlet of Tin Adanda, Timbuktu region, on 12 February 2025; one survivor told Amnesty she lost two sons and a cousin who were arrested and then killed, describing the foreign personnel involved as "mostly white men, accompanied by FAMa."
Two FAMa drone strikes are singled out: one on a market in Ejdeir on 16 March 2025 and another on a family home in Tangata in November 2025, both in Timbuktu region, together killing at least 23 people including at least five children. Seven people interviewed by Amnesty, some of whom lost relatives or were themselves injured in the Ejdeir strike, said there were no fighters at the market and that all 16 people killed and seven injured there were civilians. Amnesty says it found no evidence of armed-group presence or military objectives at either drone strike site. On 17 March 2025, Mali's military stated it had targeted a "terrorist gathering" at a transit camp 109km northwest of Léré, killing "11 terrorists"; according to Amnesty's analysis, the location and other details provided by FAMa correspond to the same Ejdeir strike, contradicting the army's account of the target.
Fifteen men gave testimony of torture, including suspension by the arms, simulated drowning, beatings with iron bars and electric shocks, suffered during joint FAMa-Wagner patrols or while detained at the Léré and Nampala military bases. Other witnesses corroborated the torture of roughly 30 individuals in total during patrols and at the two bases, and said five detainees died there from torture or poor detention conditions. Amnesty attributed most of the abuse to Wagner personnel, with Malian soldiers sometimes present or serving as interpreters. The organisation says victims were disproportionately drawn from Fulani, Arab and Tuareg pastoral communities, suspected of aiding armed groups largely because of ethnicity and location.
The evidence base rests on 119 interviews conducted with refugees in Mauritania's Hodh ech-Chargui region, drawn from research carried out across ten localities there in 2025 and 2026. UNHCR had registered roughly 290,000 Malian refugees in that region as of 31 July 2026. Several of the incidents Amnesty documents, including a killing near Lerneb, had previously been reported by RFI.
Mali notified its withdrawal from the Rome Statute in June 2026, but that withdrawal only takes legal effect on 23 June 2027, meaning the International Criminal Court — which has investigated the Malian situation since 2013 — retains jurisdiction over crimes committed before that date. Wagner deployed roughly a thousand personnel to Mali from late 2021 and was formally replaced in June 2025 by Africa Corps, a structure under direct Russian Ministry of Defence control that Amnesty says has continued abusive operations.
Amnesty is calling on Bamako to open impartial investigations, protect civilians during military operations, urgently clarify the chain of command under which foreign personnel operate in the country, and publish the agreement governing Africa Corps' presence, while urging the African Union to publicly condemn the violations and support the fight against impunity.