Human Rights Watch documents atrocities by Mali’s army and by JNIM in Burkina within twenty days

On 22 October, Human Rights Watch, datelined Nairobi, reported new abuses against civilians in central Mali by Malian forces and the allied Russia-controlled Africa Corps. It found that an apparent military drone strike on Guélédié village in the Mopti region on 16 September 2026 killed eight civilians and injured at least six; that detainees held between May and August 2026 in a metal container at a Sévaré army base were subjected to “severe beatings, electric shock, and waterboarding”; and that on 7 May 2026 soldiers and Africa Corps fighters detained a 30-year-old man at his home in Guirowel, who says he was tortured twice for about two hours each time. Witnesses described Africa Corps fighters as light-skinned and speaking a language they did not understand. HRW says hundreds of civilians have been taken into custody nationwide and many unlawfully held on military bases.

On 4 November, the same organisation published on JNIM attacks on civilians in Burkina Faso, subtitled “Deadly Attack on Mining Site; Apparent Use of Banned Explosive Devices in Northern Province”. Ilaria Allegrozzi, HRW’s senior Sahel researcher, said: “The JNIM armed group’s relentless, unlawful attacks put civilians across Burkina Faso at grave risk. The authorities should urgently strengthen protection for threatened communities, investigate abuses, and fairly prosecute those responsible.” A 45-year-old witness is quoted saying: “I’ve seen dozens of injured people, many by bullets, others because they fell while fleeing and fractured their legs or arms.” Witnesses put the attack at about two hours; residents returning found bodies on the ground and inside the mining pits. This desk has not retrieved the HRW original and does not have a confirmed death toll, date or precise location for that attack.

Assessment: Set these against the Malian General Staff’s own arithmetic. On 30 October, announcing simultaneous airstrikes under Operation “Dogokoloko”, the army said it had neutralised more than 4,880 members of armed groups and destroyed 162 bases between May and 20 October. “Neutralised” is undefined, the figure is undisaggregated, and HRW’s Guélédié finding describes exactly the kind of strike such a total would absorb without trace. Note also HRW’s method on Burkina: 57 attacks over 18 months, with AI used to process thousands of hours of footage from state television and a JNIM-used platform. That is a research model built for places where neither belligerent will let reporters in.