Rights group accuses Malian army and African Corps of killing civilians and staging swastika display | Ukraine news

Residents discovered four bodies after a joint patrol, including one mutilated and arranged in a swastika. Human rights groups call for independent probes.

According to local residents and human rights defenders, on June 23 near Zarho and Abakoyira at the border of the Timbuktu and Gao regions, a deadly clash occurred during a joint patrol by the Malian army and fighters of the so-called Russian African Corps; the dismembered body of one of the dead was displayed in the shape of a swastika.

After the patrol, local residents found two bodies: one of them was dismembered and laid out in the shape of a swastika.

Two more young people died near Abakoyira due to a drone strike on a motorcycle.

Regional authorities recently banned the use of motorcycles outside major cities as a safety measure.

Context and reaction

The human rights organization CD-DPA (Collective for the Defense of Azawad’s People’s Rights) stated that all four of the dead were peaceful civilians and had no connection to armed groups, calling the incident a horrific atrocity. The organization also accused the military of trying to intimidate the local population.

Neither the Malian authorities nor representatives of the African Corps have publicly commented on the images and these allegations.

It is also noted that previously the Wagner Group, which in Mali had been replaced by the African Corps, had repeatedly been associated with Nazi symbolism; however, the case of a body displayed in the shape of a swastika marked the first such incident of this kind in the country.

In a 2019 report, Novaya Gazeta described an investigation that spoke of the possible involvement of Russian mercenaries in the torture and brutal killing of the Syrian citizen Mohammed Tahi Isma’il al-Abdulla; the material mentions the name of one of the participants – a 30-year-old Stanislav Dychka, who allegedly joined the Wagner group in 2016.

Further investigations are ongoing; the incident underscores the tension in the region and the need for a transparent clarification of the circumstances.