Experts Seek Investigation of Wagner Group, Mali Forces – By Associated Press (Military.com) / Jan 31, 2023
GENEVA — Independent human rights experts working with the U.N. on Tuesday called for an investigation of possible abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by government forces in Mali and the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian military contractor.
More than a dozen experts, who focus on issues as various as the use of mercenaries, torture, and violence against women and girls, cited accounts of “horrific executions, mass graves, acts of torture, rape and sexual violence” and other alleged crimes over the last two years by government forces and “their allies” in the area of central Mopti and elsewhere in the restive West African country.
“We are particularly worried by credible reports that over the course of several days in late March 2022, Malian armed forces accompanied by military personnel believed to belong to the Wagner Group, executed several hundred people, who had been rounded up in Moura, a village in central Mali,” the experts said in a statement.
The experts said they were “disturbed by the apparent increased outsourcing of traditional military functions to the so-called Wagner Group in various military operations.”
