Wagner Abuses Against Fulani and Kel Tamasheq Communities
With the reignition of conflict in the wake of Wagner-Junta aggression, Mali's Kel Tamasheq and Fulani communities are under attack.
The Kel Tamasheq, commonly known by the term “Tuareg,” are a semi-nomadic ethnic group indigenous to the Sahara region. Within Mali, Tuareg communities have historically been involved in movements seeking independence from the Malian government. After a civil war in the 1990s, intermittent conflict has existed between Kel Tamasheq communities living in the northern Malian provinces of Kidal, Gao, and Tombouctou, and the federal government centralized in the country’s southwest. Kel Tamasheq refers to these three provinces as “Azawad,” which means “land of transhumance,” and this region is the desired goal of a Kel Tamesheq autonomous state. Azawad also extends to parts of Niger, Algeria, and Libya, encompassing the historic lands of the Kel Tamasheq within the range of their pastoralist lifestyle. While the Azawad-Mali conflict has remained largely a stalemate, in 2023-2024 violence has ticked up as both sides have come to blows. Especially with the breakdown of the Malian government during its military coup, ensuring human rights accountability for indigenous communities has become difficult.
This recent conflict traces its roots back to 2012, the year after Muammar al-Gaddafi’s fall. With chaos engulfing Libya, many Kel Tamasheq fled the Libyan Civil War and returned to Mali, taking control of the north of the country. In 2013, the Malian government, together with peacekeepers from France and the African Union, re-established control and signed a peace deal with rebel groups. In exchange for lessened regulations and defacto localized control, hostilities were suspended. The peace deal survived the 2020 Malian coup, with the military junta focusing more on internal stability, but a major change took place which sowed the seeds of conflict: the new Malian junta expelled French peacekeeping troops from the nation, replacing them with Russian Wagner mercenaries. In 2023, the Coordination for Azawadian Movements (CMA), an alliance of Kel Tamasheq separatist groups, accused the junta and Wagner Group of massacring civilians and reneging on their commitments to the ceasefire. On the other hand, the junta accused the CMA of coordinating attacks with jihadist groups such as Al-Qaeda, even though there are reports of CMA ex-rebels battling jihadists and and vice versa. In November of 2023, violence in the north restarted with the Malian army mobilizing for a reoccupation. However, a strong guerrilla movement exists and Kel Tamasheq Azawadian ex-rebels regularly raid outposts and control the countryside.
This case primarily investigates allegations of massacres committed by the Malian Army and Wagner Group. Since the junta’s expulsion of the UN peacekeeping mission in 2022, the Malian government has welcomed Wagner mercenaries, now called the Russian Afrika Corps, to enforce control. Due to the chaotic ground situation and removal of UN peacekeepers, documentation of further human rights abuses has been difficult, though with the escalation of the conflict it is likely the situation has only worsened. The most concerning instance of Wagner-Malian abuses against people suspected of aiding the rebels is the Moura Massacre. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that from March 27th to the 1st of 2023, more than 500 people were unlawfully executed by the Malian Army and Wagner Group and 58 women and girls were subjugated to acts of sexual violence. While both groups assert that no civilians were harmed in the operation, the Moura incident took place at a time when unlawful arrests, sudden disappearances, and a crackdown on government criticism were rampant. The OHCHR gathered 157 witness statements describing the massacre and its aftermath in detail. Additionally, across the country reports of joint Wagner-Malian attacks on civilians have intensified. Reports exist of helicopters flying low and opening fire on villages and soldiers indiscriminately shooting into crowds. Estimates state that upwards of 6,000 civilians have been killed across nearly 2,000 individual instances. The government claims these are casualties either perpetrated by terrorists or that they did not happen at all.
Notably, in the name of combatting separatist and jihadist violence, Wagner-junta operations have been indiscriminate in targeting Kel Tamasheq, Fulani, and other ethnic groups. Thousands of instances of extrajudicial arrests, crackdowns on protests, and police raids without cause only further the cycle of violence. The heavy handed government crackdown on “terrorism” has not only affected Azawad and the Kel Tamsheq but also targeted hundreds of Fulani in the southern provinces of the nation-state. As violence from armed groups continues to surge, the government’s actions only worsen, leading to more resistance from the populace.
Unfortunately, with many mechanisms for state reporting out of the picture due to the fluid situation currently present in Mali’s government, it is extremely likely that the humanitarian situation is far worse than reported. The Wagner Group has a history of brutal tactics and human rights abuses across the African theater, and escalating terrorist violence will only exacerbate the problem. Indigenous groups, already some of the most marginalized and vulnerable, will find their situations worsened.
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