As Russia's Africa Corps fights in Mali, witnesses describe atrocities from beheadings to rapes

DOUANKARA, Mauritania — A new Russian military unit that replaced the Wagner mercenary group is carrying out abuses including rapes and beheadings as it teams up with Mali 's military to hunt down extremists, dozens of civilians who fled the fighting have told The Associated Press.

The Africa Corps is using the same tactics as Wagner, the refugees said, in accounts not reported by international media until now. Two refugees showed videos of villages burned by the ''white men.'' Two others said they found bodies of loved ones with liver and kidneys missing, an abuse the AP previously reported around Wagner.

''It's a scorched-earth policy,'' said a Malian village chief who fled. ''The soldiers speak to no one. Anyone they see, they shoot. No questions, no warning. People don't even know why they are being killed.''

West Africa's vast Sahel region has become the deadliest place in the world for extremism, with thousands of people killed. The military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating the fighters affiliated with al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.

When the Africa Corps replaced Wagner six months ago, weary civilians hoped for less brutality. The United Nations says they have been abused by all sides in the conflict.

But refugees described a new reign of terror by Africa Corps in the vast and largely lawless territory, and legal analysts said Moscow is directly responsible.

The AP gained rare access to the Mauritanian border, where thousands of Malians have fled in recent months as fighting intensified. It spoke with 34 refugees who described indiscriminate killings, abductions and sexual abuse. Most spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Malian authorities have never publicly acknowledged the presence of Wagner or Africa Corps. But Russian state media in recent weeks have published reports from Mali, praising Africa Corps for defending the country from ''terrorists," and Russia's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the unit is active ''at the request of the Malian authorities,'' providing ground escorts, search-and-rescue operations and other work.

Russia's Defense Ministry did not respond to AP questions.

Calling locals ‘dogs' in Russian

It was early morning and Mougaloa was preparing sweet black tea when she heard gunshots. Seconds later, two cars pulled up in front of her tent, filled with masked white men shouting in a foreign language.

A herder from northern Mali, she has witnessed her share of horrors over the last decade of violence — but she said no one had been as ferocious as these men.

She said the men arrived with Malian soldiers and grabbed her 20-year-old son, Koubadi. The Malians asked him whether he had seen militants. When he said no, they beat him until he fainted.

Then the men slit his throat as Mougaloa watched, powerless.

She said the family fled but the armed men found them again in late October.

This time, they didn't ask questions. They wore masks and military uniforms. They took everything the family had, from animals to jewelry.

And they kept repeating one word, ''pes'' — a derogatory term for dog in Russian.

They took Fatma into her tent. Without thinking, Mougaloa took Akhadya's hand and started running, leaving Fatma behind. They have not heard from her since.

''We were so scared,'' Mougaloa said, trembling. ''We are hoping she will get here at some point.''

Experts say it's impossible to know how many people are being killed and assaulted in Mali, especially in remote areas, while journalists and aid workers have increasingly limited access to the country.

''There is a lot of people raped, attacked, killed. Families are separated, there is no doubt about that," said Sukru Cansizoglu, the representative in Mauritania for the U.N. refugee agency. But ''it is sometimes difficult to really pinpoint who are the perpetrators."

Civilians, under pressure from both the militants and the Africa Corps and Malian fighters, are ''between a rock and a hard place,'' said Heni Nsaibia from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED.

Mougaloa's family experienced it firsthand.

''If you don't tell the army you saw jihadists, the army will kill you,'' she said. ''But if you do tell them, the jihadists will find you and kill you.''

Questions around the Africa Corps

Reported abuses against civilians intensified when Wagner joined the underfunded Malian army in 2021. According to private security analysts, Mali paid Russia about $10 million a month for Wagner's assistance. While the group was never officially under the Kremlin's command, it had close ties to Russia's intelligence and military.

Moscow began developing the Africa Corps as a rival to Wagner after its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in 2023 following his brief armed rebellion in Russia that challenged the rule of President Vladimir Putin.

Not all Africa Corps fighters are Russian. Several refugees told the AP they saw Black men speaking foreign languages. The European Council on Foreign Relations in a recent report said the unit recruits from Russia, Belarus and African states.

Africa Corps and Malian forces have increased their joint offensives in northern Mali, home to substantial gold reserves, according to the Critical Threats project by the American Enterprise Institute.

While civilian deaths blamed on the Russians have dropped this year — 447 so far compared with 911 last year — the numbers might not reflect the full scale, Nsaibia said: ''People are more scared to report, in order to avoid putting their own safety on the line."

Fewer outsiders are watching. A U.N. peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in 2023 under government pressure. Mali's withdrawal this year from the International Criminal Court has further complicated efforts to track abuses. The ICC has been investigating serious crimes committed in Mali since 2012, when fighting with armed groups began.

Eduardo Gonzalez Cueva, a U.N. independent expert on human rights in Mali, told the AP he asked the country's military authorities twice this year for permission to visit, and sent them a questionnaire. They did not respond.

‘Only the name has changed'

When Wagner announced its departure from Mali, some refugees decided to return home. Many found that nothing had changed.

''It was the same thing,'' said one, Bocar, who spoke with resignation as he cradled his youngest son. He said he had seen bodies with organs missing.

He said he had counted all the men killed or abducted by Wagner and Mali's army in his hometown of Lere before he first fled in 2023. He said the list reached 214 people.

''Only the name was changed,'' he said of Africa Corps. ''The clothes, the vehicles, the people stayed the same. The methods stayed the same, and even became worse. So we left home again.''

One woman said she was so frantic to flee Wagner fighters that she once left her 3-month-old baby at home. When she returned hours later, her daughter was laying in front of the house, her tiny hands clenched into fists.

''I was so scared, I forgot I had a baby,'' the woman said, clutching her daughter.

Legal experts said the shift from Wagner to Africa Corps makes the Russian government directly accountable for fighters' actions.

''Despite the rebranding, there is striking continuity in personnel, commanders, tactics and even insignia between Wagner and Africa Corps,'' said Lindsay Freeman, senior director of international accountability at the UC Berkeley School of Law's Human Rights Center, which has monitored the conflict in Mali.

Because Africa Corps is directly embedded in Russia's Ministry of Defense, it can be treated as an organ of the Russian state under international law, Freeman said. ''That means any war crimes committed by Africa Corps in Mali are, in principle, attributable to the Russian government under the rules on state responsibility.''

When white men came to the village of Kurmare less than a month ago, Fatma said everyone fled but her.

At the sound of gunshots, her 18-year-old daughter had a seizure and fell, unconscious. Fatma stayed with her as the men looted the village and shot at people running away.

The men went from house to house, taking women's jewelry and killing men. When they entered Fatma's house, they thought her daughter was dead and left her alone.

Fatma did not want to talk about what the white men did to her.

It ''stays between God and me,'' she muttered, trembling.

''Before the conflict erupted, I had strength, I had courage,'' Fatma said faintly. Now, "life has lost its meaning.''

Her family is with the Fulani ethnic group, which Mali's government accuses of being affiliated with the militants. Some Fulani, long neglected by the central government, have joined the fighters. Civilians are often targeted by both sides.

But Fatma said no one killed or injured in her village belonged to any armed group. ''I don't know what we did to deserve it," she said.

Now, in Mauritania, the memories haunt her. She has trouble sleeping and breathing, and clutched repeatedly at her chest. She spends her time looking at the only photograph she has of her daughter.