Human Rights Watch has catalogued a series of rights abuses, charging all sides in the conflict with unlawful assaults on civilians and the destruction and looting of homes. Ilaria Allegrozzi, the rights group’s senior researcher, warned that with fighting flaring up again the combatants are “repeating former patterns of harming civilians.”
Since 2012, successive Malian administrations have contended with Islamist and separatist armed movements. Most recently, on April 25, the Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) launched coordinated attacks nationwide. JNIM has allied with Tuareg fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front, who aim to topple the military junta led by Gen. Assimi Goïta — a regime currently supported by Russian fighters from the Africa Corps (formerly known as the Wagner Group).
