Killings of civilians soar as mercenaries from Russia join hunt for extremists in Mali
The man knew what to expect from Islamist fighters. They had appeared at his door for years, demanding money or livestock — the taxes he paid to survive. Then one morning in March, the threat in his rural community suddenly had a confusing new face: White men in military fatigues, yelling in a language he did not recognize.
“They were shooting people. People in their homes,” he said. “Everywhere, bodies were dropping to the ground.”
At least 300 people are believed to have been killed in the man’s town of Moura, in central Mali, though he and other witnesses suggest the toll could be far higher.
Similar accounts have emerged across the West African nation since hundreds of Russian mercenaries joined the Malian army this winter in the fight to reclaim territory from groups loyal to alQaida and the Islamic State.
The hired guns of the Wagner Group — a covert arm of the Kremlin, according to the United States and Western allies — have been repeatedly accused of war crimes, leaving a trail of atrocities across the Middle East and Africa. Profits flow back to Moscow, according to
Western intelligence officials and security researchers, helping prop up Vladimir Putin’s government at a time of growing economic isolation over its war in Ukraine.
In Libya, U.S. defense officials said Wagner agents planted explosives in children’s toys. In the Central African Republic, human rights investigators received reports that mercenaries sexually assaulted young women and girls.
In Mali, where insurgents have overrun vast stretches of the country, witnesses told The Washington Post that men they believe to be Russian operatives have killed scores of innocent people in recent months under the guise of restoring peace.
“There are quite a lot of eyewitness accounts on the presence of White soldiers speaking an unknown language,” said Héni Nsaibia, senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), which documents violent events around the world. Mounting visual evidence, he added, “strongly suggests they are private Russian military contractors and not conventional Russian forces.”
CONTRACTORS AID MALI’S MILITARY
Between 800 and 1,000 Russian mercenaries are now active in Mali, according to U.S. military officials focused on Africa, providing services that costs Mali’s military government up to $10 million monthly. They guard the presidential palace, officials say, and are tasked with tracking extremists in the scrubland.
The number of Malians fleeing to neighboring Mauritania has surged in the months since Wagner landed. Registrations at a refugee camp near the border have more than quadrupled since February, according to the U.N. refugee agency. And groups that track civilian deaths at the hands of security forces say fatalities have skyrocketed.
Wagner operates in secrecy, masking its activities with an evolving network of shell companies that often avoid formal paperwork.
But documents and imagery reviewed by The Post, some of them previously unreported, point to a heightened Russian presence in Mali.
Satellite photographs illustrate the buildup of a military base outside the airport in the capital, Bamako, which Western officials say is used by Wagner operatives.
Flight records reveal Russian Air Force jets making unpublicized trips to and from that city. Drone videos and surveillance photos captured by French authorities and reviewed by The Post show White men in uniform alongside Malian forces.
The Malian government
has denied hiring Wagner, saying they work only with Russian military instructors. But Russian officials have publicly contradicted that claim, calling the operatives “private” contractors. The line is blurry, experts say, as many Wagner agents are Russian military veterans.
The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment. When asked by The Post in March about Wagner’s expanding footprint in Mali, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “We have nothing to do with the activities of private military companies abroad.”
The Malian government and army did not respond to messages and calls seeking comment.
PUTIN SEEKING ALLIANCES IN AFRICA
Ever since Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, poisoning relations with the West, it has pushed to build alliances elsewhere. Putin paid special attention to African nations, where movements to slash ties with former colonizers like France were gaining steam — particularly in Mali, a nation of 21 million. Despite a nine-year international military intervention
led by Paris, extremists now dominate two-thirds of the territory.
After French President Emmanuel Macron announced last year that Paris planned to withdraw thousands of troops, Bamako turned to Moscow. Relations with France collapsed. Malian officials kicked out the French ambassador and told all French troops to leave “without delay.”
Not long after that, the White strangers in military fatigues showed up, said the man who described the bodies falling.
The Post is withholding the names of witnesses because they fear retaliation by the Malian government.
The man is a musician from the town of Moura, once a sleepy community of farmers and herders. The peace was shattered when al-Qaida militants invaded the country in 2012.
They settled in Moura seven years ago, giving residents an ultimatum: Support us, leave with nothing, or die. Many in the town of roughly 10,000 chose to stay and adhere to uncomfortable new rules.
“The jihadists made everyone dress like them
and grow beards like them,” the musician said. “For men, it’s hard to tell us apart. You are not a jihadist but you look like a jihadist.”
Insecurity has fueled waves of civil unrest in Mali, making room for army officers to overthrow two presidents in the past two years. The new military leaders pledged to bring in help to end the bloodshed.
Satellite imagery shows that construction of the new military base near Mali’s main airport began in August, a month before news broke that leaders were negotiating a deal with Wagner. Mercenaries sleep in the barracks and run a logistical hub, according to the Western officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
At least six Russian military aircraft have touched down this year in Bamako. Three were unannounced by the Malian military, according to flight data provided by Flightradar24 and cellphone video posted to Telegram. On the way to Mali, some appeared to make stops in Syria and Libya, countries where Wagner is known to operate.