Human Rights Watch says it has documented a series of rights abuses in Mali, accusing all sides of unlawfully targeting civilians and of destroying and looting homes — conduct the group says has returned with the latest surge in violence. Ilaria Allegrozzi, the rights group’s senior researcher, warned that as fighting has flared up again the warring parties are “repeating former patterns of harming civilians”.
Since 2012, successive governments in Mali have faced sustained conflict with Islamist and separatist armed groups. Most recently, on April 25, the Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) launched coordinated attacks across the country. JNIM has allied with Tuareg fighters from the Azawad Liberation Front in a campaign aimed at toppling 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).
