Human Rights Watch says Mali's army and Russian paramilitary fighters carried out an unlawful drone strike and tortured civilians in the central Mopti region. Human Rights Watch said Thursday that Mali's armed forces and fighters from Russia's Africa Corps paramilitary group carried out a new wave of abuses against civilians in the central Mopti region, including an unlawful drone strike and the torture of detained residents.

The rights group said the attacks killed and wounded people with no clear link to armed groups. Mali's military has relied on Russian paramilitary support since 2021, when the ruling junta pushed out French troops and turned to Moscow-linked fighters to battle jihadist insurgencies linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented mass killings, arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial executions attributed to the joint operations, which it says have deepened mistrust of the state in central Mali.

The report calls on Mali's transitional authorities to investigate the Mopti incidents and hold those responsible to account, warning that continued abuses risk fueling further recruitment by armed groups. Neither Mali's government nor Russia's Africa Corps had responded publicly to the findings at the time of the report's release.