Mali: Independent rights experts call for an investigation into the alleged crimes of the Wagner Group
Rights experts – including the United Nations Working Group on Mercenaries – say that a “atmosphere of terror and complete impunity” besieged Wagner’s operations in the northwestern African country.
Systematic murder
“We are particularly concerned by credible reports that within a few days at the end of March 2022, the Malian armed forces, along with military personnel believed to be part of the Wagner Group, execute hundreds of peoplepeople were rounded up in Moura, a village in central Mali,” said UN experts.
Founded by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group is also believed to have been involved in the war in Ukraine, recruiting thousands of prisoners from Russian prisons.
Concerns about the Wagner Group have also surfaced elsewhere in recent months, notably in the Central African Republic (CAR), where the United Nations human rights office OHCHRpublished information pointed out that mercenaries were among those who “committed” serious and systematic violations of human rights and international humanitarian lawincluding arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances and mass executions, a pattern that continues unabated and with impunity.”
Independent rights experts appointed by the United Nations say they have also received reports that Wagner Group officials have committed rape and sexual violence against women, men and young girls all over CAR.
“It is not clear how many people are victims of sexual violence because Survivors are afraid to bring their cases to justice for fear of reprisals,” surname speak.
Peuhl minority targeted
In addition to the Wagner Group’s alleged involvement in Mali’s Moura atrocious crime, experts say there are also credible and persistent accounts of numerous serious human rights abuses against individual owners. ethnically Peuhl.
Including torture, rape, robbery, arbitrary detention and forced disappearance.
State-backed violence
In a statement, rights experts expressed concern about the “increased outsourcing of traditional military functions” to the Wagner Group in Mali, where the government has been battling a militant insurgency. jihad in the northern and central regions for many years.
The experts added that private contractors have also carried out counter-terrorism operations, including in Nia Ouro, Gouni and Fakala, before urging Malian authorities to ban individuals from participating in hostilities.
“The use of mercenaries, mercenary-like actors and private security and military companies only exacerbates the current cycle of violence and impunity in the countrythe experts emphasized.
Victims of the Wagner Group have faced significant challenges in accessing justice and redressing human rights abuses, including sexual violence and crimes, experts say. related to them, “especially because The secrecy and obscurity surrounding Wagner’s activities in Mali“.
Afraid to say
The experts added that the threat of retaliation against those who dare to speak out has also created “an atmosphere of total terror and total impunity for victims of the Group’s abuses.” Wagner”.
In one exclusive interview with UN News, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) represented in Mali, Mohamed Touréexplains that jihadists continue to terrorize and target civilians in rural areas on a daily basis.
Mr Touré was speaking after a recent attack on the village of N’Tillit in northern Mali, which forced more than 3,700 Burkinabé refugees and local Malians to flee to Gao, the nearest city 120 kilometers away.
The UNHCR official said the majority of those displaced were women and children who had been walking for hours without food, fearing for their lives in search of safety.
