Islamist armed groups, Mali's military and allied forces all committed serious abuses against civilians after fighting intensified in April, Human Rights Watch said in a report calling for independent investigations and prosecutions.
Between April 26 and June 9, HRW researchers completed 34 remote interviews—30 of them with witnesses, and consulted civil-society figures, community leaders and journalists. Researchers also verified and located four videos and six photographs and examined satellite images of destroyed shelters. Mali's justice ministry did not respond to a letter sent on June 11.
The renewed conflict followed coordinated April 25 attacks by JNIM, an armed coalition aligned with al-Qaeda, working alongside the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front. Their forces fought the Malian army and Russian Africa Corps personnel in Gao and Kidal. HRW recorded 13 civilian deaths and at least 25 injuries in those two cities.
The report attributed particularly severe later casualties to government operations. It said counterinsurgency actions against Fulani communities from May 14 to 17 killed 38 civilians, including 23 children. Two apparent military drone strikes allegedly killed 12 children and teenagers at Guimbé on April 25 and 10 adults attending a wedding gathering at Tené on May 17.
JNIM also imposed a siege on Bamako and threatened civilians who obstructed it. Between May 6 and 21, fighters burned more than 40 civilian vehicles headed toward the capital. HRW documented a public execution at Tonka and said attacks on fuel trucks since September 2025 had killed drivers, disrupted electricity and education, and paralysed transport.
The FLA told HRW it warned communities around Kidal to leave and avoid military positions. Such warnings do not remove a force's obligation to distinguish civilians from military targets. International humanitarian law also restricts siege tactics that deny civilians goods necessary for survival.
HRW's findings did not present every civilian casualty as caused by one actor. Some people died during exchanges of fire with the responsible side unclear; other incidents were attributed through witness testimony, imagery and contextual analysis. The organisation said deliberate or indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian property are prohibited and serious intentional violations may constitute war crimes.
Mali has fought separatist and Islamist groups since 2012. After military takeovers in successive years, 2020 and 2021, the government of General Assimi Goïta removed French and UN forces, turned toward Russian support and ended a long-running accord with Tuareg groups. JNIM and the FLA later cooperated despite different political aims.
HRW asked the United Nations and African Union to support a fact-finding mechanism capable of building criminal cases. Its central warning was that abuses recur when credible allegations against every side go unexamined and commanders face no effective accountability.
