Mali refugees recount horrors of attacks

Note: Al Jazeera has concealed some personal information of interviewees, such as surnames, to protect their identities.

Douankara, Mauritania – One evening in late March, Moctar, 75, gathered with family and friends in Sondaje, a village in northern Mali, to plan their escape. For months, homes had been raided by rival armed groups, accusing many villagers of collaborating with their enemies. Two of Moctar's cousins had been killed in one such attack. Then a group issued an ultimatum.

“The men arrived on about 30 motorbikes, prayed the evening prayer with us at the mosque, then told us we had 72 hours to leave the village,” Moctar told Al Jazeera in a hoarse, weak voice. They had no choice but to flee that same night, trying to avoid daytime patrols.

“We have seen terrible things,” Moctar continued, speaking in Tamasheq. “People were beheaded and their heads placed on their chests. People were very afraid. The fear in their eyes made us even more scared.”

Moctar's family is among thousands who have recently crossed into Mauritania, traumatized by the violence and abuse they witnessed. Thousands have poured into Douankara and surrounding areas.

Mali is at the epicenter of escalating violence in West Africa's Sahel region, which accounts for about half of global armed-group-related deaths, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a conflict consultancy.

The Malian army and its allied Russian fighters are clashing with several groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL that have seized and control vast tracts of rural areas. These groups also operate in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, and are increasingly pushing into coastal states like Benin and Nigeria.

They are also fighting rebels in the Kidal region of northern Mali, who often cooperate with armed groups against their common enemy, the Malian government. Their most recent cooperation was a major attack over the weekend on the capital and several other cities. Defense Minister Sadio Camara was killed in the attack.

All sides have been accused of humanitarian violations. But over the past two years, the Malian army and Russian fighters have inflicted more violence on civilians than all armed groups combined, said Heni Nsaibia, senior Sahel analyst at ACLED, speaking to Al Jazeera.

“There is no good side in this conflict, and collective punishment is a key feature,” Nsaibia said, adding that the Malian army is more willing to attack civilians because of the level of territorial control by armed groups. “It doesn't matter which side you are on. If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you will be killed.”

On April 20, three human rights organizations filed a case against Mali before the African Union's human rights court, accusing the military and its Russian allies of “serious human rights violations.” It is the first known case in Africa to hold a state accountable for hiring military contractors.

A country in crisis

For years, a complex web of armed groups and allied militias have controlled areas in central and northern Mali.

Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, a group of about 10,000 fighters linked to al-Qaeda and now advancing southward, is the most prominent among them.

The ISIL-affiliated group in the Sahel Province is active in the northern Menaka region.

JNIM, led by Iyad Ag Ghali, attacks military bases while punishing communities deemed to collaborate with the government. It was JNIM that terrorized Moctar's village.

Initially, the group targeted remote areas with little government control, but as their forces and technical capabilities, including the use of drones, grew, JNIM became bolder.

In late September, the group's fighters began attacking fuel tankers entering the landlocked country from neighboring Senegal, effectively besieging the capital Bamako. The campaign failed after Malian and Russian forces ramped up operations and surveillance targeting JNIM positions, Nsaibia said.

“We haven't seen a single attack on fuel tankers since January. ... That shows the campaign has been limited.”

Fighting is ongoing between rebels of the Azawad Liberation Front, fighting for an independent region in northern Mali, and the army and Russian fighters. In June, the FLA cooperated with JNIM to ambush a military convoy, inflicting heavy losses on Mali and Russia.

On Saturday, the FLA and JNIM confirmed attacks on several Malian military posts. The barracks in Kati outside Bamako, where President Assimi Goita, head of Mali's military junta, lives, was attacked along with the airport serving Bamako and the northern cities of Kidal, Sevare and Gao. The groups claimed control of Kidal. At least 16 people were wounded, according to Malian authorities. Casualties have not been confirmed.

Russian presence intensifies in Mali

Up to 2,000 Russian fighters are deployed in Mali.

Initially, they were part of the private Wagner Group, largely taken over by the Russian government and transformed into the Africa Corps, under the Russian Defense Ministry. Though retaining some Wagner mercenaries, the Africa Corps has a less aggressive approach.

Russians first arrived in Mali in 2021, a year after the military seized power from the civilian government, promising to stem escalating violence.

After the coup, about 4,000 French soldiers deployed in Mali withdrew, as did UN peacekeepers.

According to analysts, the use of Russian fighters has yielded mixed results. They have helped push back rebels or armed groups in some areas of northern and central Mali, but the lack of sustained military presence sometimes leaves these territories back in enemy hands.

‘We decided to run’

Alongside the Malian army, Russians are accused of abusing those suspected of supporting armed groups or rebels.

Refugees in Mauritania said Russians, sometimes alongside their Malian allies, carried out executions, rapes, or torture. Some said Wagner mercenaries seized suspects during raids, lined them up, berated and beat them. Some said Wagner mercenaries beheaded suspects or buried men alive.

Al Jazeera, unable to independently verify these claims, contacted Malian government and Russian officials for comment. Neither responded.

“Wagner raped women in a village near ours, but we decided to flee before they came to our village,” a 49-year-old woman from the Mopti region, whose family witnessed Wagner raids before fleeing late last year, told Al Jazeera.

“They came to our village and took everything they could: our jewelry, our blankets,” another woman living near the northern town of Lere said.

A villager in Douankara told Al Jazeera he witnessed two Malian refugees being shot as they crossed back to retrieve belongings from their homes. The man said he was part of a group that recovered the two bodies after Wagner fighters and Malian soldiers withdrew.

Russia appears willing to expand its military presence in West Africa, using operations in Mali as a springboard, according to the conflict consultancy The Sentry. Currently, members of the Africa Corps are active in military-controlled Niger and Burkina Faso.

From October to April, at least 13,000 people fled Mali to settle in communities like Douankara and nearby Fassala, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. At least 100,000 people have been confirmed to have crossed into Mauritania since late 2023 after the violence escalated, though the actual number may be much higher.

“The majority of new arrivals are women and children,” Omar Doukali, UNHCR spokesman in Mauritania, told Al Jazeera, adding that the agency is hampered by recent aid cuts from Western donor countries like the United States.

“We are seeing continuous new arrivals across a vast and remote border area, often after difficult journeys under harsh environmental conditions. Our priority is to quickly identify the most vulnerable, including unaccompanied children, women at risk, the elderly, and those with urgent medical needs, and to provide timely protection and assistance.”

Mali in conflict again

Some new arrivals have settled in the Mbera camp, originally established for Malian refugees in 2012 when Tuareg-led separatists fought the army as part of a decades-long independence struggle.

Rebels cooperated with Iyad el Ghali, a Tuareg separatist fighter who later led JNIM, against the Malian army. Their movement was taken over by Ghali.

After several rounds of peace negotiations initiated and halted mediated by Mauritania and Algeria, the separatists agreed to a ceasefire in 2015 after Mali promised autonomy. About 15,000 UN peacekeepers were deployed to monitor the disarmament and demobilization of fighters.

However, the army and rebels began clashing again in 2023 when the junta, along with Russian mercenaries, tried to take over peacekeeper bases, a scenario the separatists opposed. Mali then tore up the peace agreements.

The refugee influx has put pressure on limited grazing land and water resources in Mauritania's arid villages, local officials said, especially since many refugees arrive with their cattle and sheep. Infrastructure such as clinics and schools is also being overwhelmed.

In Mbera camp, Mohamed “Momo” Ag Malha, 84, the community leader, told Al Jazeera it is “frustrating” to see another wave of Malians pouring in, more than 14 years after he himself was forced to flee.

Needs in the camp are already high despite support from the Mauritanian government, which he called the only country responding, as he accused Islamic states of ignoring the crisis.

He said teenagers who have spent their entire lives in the camp cannot enroll in university after finishing middle school because there is no nearby university.

With fresh fighting, there is little hope of returning to Mali.

“We Malians are victims of everyone,” Momo lamented. “All we want is peace and to be able to return to our homes. That's all we want.”