The New York-based activist group reported six incidents in Gao and two in Menaka between January and June.
Mass murder, rape and theft Northeastern Mali has been reported this year to have forced thousands of people to flee and flee, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
A report released by the rights group on Thursday lists six attacks in Gao region and two in Menaka between January and June. Unconfirmed reports from aid workers and witnesses indicate that hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands have fled.
Many witnesses told investigators that the fighters had guns, sometimes rocket launchers, rode motorcycles and pickup trucks, and wore distinctive turbans.
“Islamic militias are brutally attacking civilians and creating a humanitarian crisis,” said HRW’s Sahel researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi.
“Security has worsened amid clashes between two Islamist armed groups as they seek to control supply lines and increase power,” the rights watchdog said in a report, adding that it could not confirm the total death toll since January.
HRW said its findings were based on interviews with 52 people including “39 witnesses to torture, 7 members of the Malian security forces, and 6 representatives of international organizations”.
According to witnesses, the fighters spoke the local languages Tamashek, Fulfulde, Songhai, Hausa, and Arabic, and sometimes carried the ISIL/ISIS flag.
HRW also said that “in the midst of increasing violence”, from July 1 to the end of the year the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bamako “makes the situation difficult”.
“The departure of the UN peacekeepers means that the authorities of the Malian government must work to protect civilians and work together with other countries to ensure that the refugees have access to assistance and basic necessities,” said Allegrozzi.
Money is down martial law from August 2020 while the army chiefs, angered by their failure to deal with the militias that have been operating in West Africa since 2012, fired the country’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
Since taking power, the small military government in Bamako has consolidated political and military with Russia and breaking ties with traditional friend France.
The morale of France has declined due to the failure of the French military to stop the violence that took place in the former French territories. It has also caused people in these countries to hate the French people.
HRW said that Russia’s Wagner Group has been involved in “atrocities” in several African countries, including Mali, and documented “grave atrocities” by the Malian security forces and “Wagner’s army during the fight against terrorism in Mali”.
In 2022, the Malian army and white fighters believed to be Russians were attacked to do more than 300 people in the town of Moura during clashes with armed groups, which the government denied.