Refugees fleeing Mali have provided harrowing testimony to The Associated Press, alleging that a new Russian military unit, the Africa Corps, is committing severe human rights abuses, including rapes and beheadings. The unit, which reports directly to Russia's Defence Ministry, replaced the notorious Wagner mercenary group six months ago.
A Reign of Terror in the Sahel
Dozens of people who have escaped to neighbouring Mauritania describe a new wave of brutality as the Africa Corps teams up with Mali's military to hunt down Islamist extremists. The vast Sahel region of West Africa is now considered the deadliest place in the world for extremist violence. In a significant geopolitical shift, the military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have turned from Western allies to Russia for support against fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
The AP spoke to 34 refugees, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Their accounts, collected during rare access to the Mauritanian border, represent the first international media report on the Africa Corps's alleged tactics, which refugees say mirror those used by Wagner.
Scorched-Earth Policy and Organ Harvesting Claims
Refugees provided chilling details of the unit's operations. Two individuals showed videos of villages they claimed were burned by the Africa Corps. In a particularly gruesome allegation, two other refugees said they discovered the bodies of loved ones with livers and kidneys missing.
"It's a scorched-earth policy," said a Malian village chief who fled to Mauritania last month for the second time. "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." He concluded starkly, "There is no difference between Wagner and Africa Corps."
While Malian authorities have never publicly acknowledged the presence of either Wagner or the Africa Corps, Russian state media has recently published reports from Mali praising the unit for defending the country from "terrorists." Russia's Foreign Ministry has confirmed the unit is active "at the request of the Malian authorities," providing ground escorts and search-and-rescue operations.
Direct Accountability for the Russian State
Legal experts warn that the shift from the quasi-private Wagner Group to the official Africa Corps has significant implications. Because the Africa Corps is embedded within Russia's Ministry of Defence, it can be treated as an organ of the Russian state under international law.
"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 Centre. "That means any war crimes committed by Africa Corps in Mali are, in principle, attributable to the Russian government."
Moscow began developing the Africa Corps after the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2023. Much remains unknown about the unit, including the exact number of fighters, though analysts estimate around 2,000. Notably, not all fighters are Russian; refugees reported seeing Black men speaking foreign languages, and a recent report by the European Council on Foreign Relations stated the unit recruits from Russia, Belarus, and African states.
Civilians find themselves trapped in an impossible situation. "If you don't tell the army you saw jihadists, the army will kill you. But if you tell them, the jihadists will find you and kill you," one refugee explained. Experts describe civilians as being "between a rock and a hard place," under pressure from both militants and the joint Malian-Russian forces.
The Russian Defence Ministry did not respond to AP's questions regarding the allegations.
