Summary:
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Wagner’s operations in northwest Africa have been surrounded by a “climate of terror and full impunity,” according to the rights experts who comprise the UN Working Group on Mercenaries.
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The Wagner Group, established by Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin, is rumoured to have enlisted thousands of prisoners from Russian prisons to fight in Ukraine.
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The threat of retaliation against those who spoke out had also created “an overall climate of fear and complete impunity for victims of the Wagner Group’s wrongdoings.
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“Mohamed Touré, the UNHCR representative in Mali, revealed that jihadists continue to terrorise and target civilians in rural regions daily in an exclusive interview with UN News.
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Mr. Touré spoke following a recent assault on the town of N’Tillit in northern Mali, which drove over 3,700 Burkinabé refugees and native Malians to seek sanctuary in the 120-kilometre away city of Gao.
The rights experts who make up the UN Working Group on Mercenaries say that Wagner’s work in northwest Africa has been done in a “climate of terror and full impunity.”
Systematic murders
According to reliable sources, the Malian armed forces and military troops thought to be from the Wagner Group murdered several hundred people who had been picked up in the village of Moura in central Mali over several days in late March 2022, according to the UN experts.
The Wagner Group, started by the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, is said to have sent thousands of prisoners from Russian jails to Ukraine to fight.
Concerns have been raised about the Wagner Group in other places, most notably in the Central African Republic (CAR), where the UN human rights office said that the mercenaries were among those “committing systemic and grave human rights and international humanitarian law violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances, and summary executions, a pattern that continues unabated and unpunished.”
Independent UN human rights experts said they had also heard that Wagner Group employees in the CAR had raped and sexually assaulted people.
No one knows how many people have been sexually assaulted because survivors are afraid to report their crimes for fear of being hurt.
Targeted minority in Peuhl
The experts said that, in addition to the alleged involvement of the Wagner Group in the Moura massacre in Mali, there were several reliable and consistent reports of serious rights violations against people, mostly of the ethnic Peuhl group.
These include forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, rape, and torture.
Government-approved violence
In a statement, the rights experts warned about the “increasing outsourcing of traditional military functions” to the Wagner Group in Mali, where the government has been fighting for years against a jihadist uprising in the north and center areas.
Before asking the Malian government to stop letting private citizens get involved in wars, the experts said that private contractors had also done counterterrorism work in places like Nia Ouro, Gouni, and Fakala.
The experts said that using mercenaries, people who act like mercenaries, and private security and military firms only added to the country’s violence and lack of accountability.
According to the experts, victims of the Wagner Group have had a difficult time getting justice and redress for the crimes against them, including sexual assault and other human rights violations, “especially in light of the secrecy and opacity surrounding Wagner’s actions in Mali.”
Hesitant to speak up
The experts said that the threat of retaliation against those who spoke out had also created “an overall climate of fear and complete impunity for victims of the Wagner Group’s wrongdoings.”
Mohamed Touré, the UNHCR representative in Mali, revealed that jihadists continue to terrorize and target civilians in rural regions daily in an exclusive interview with UN News.
Mr. Touré spoke following a recent assault on the town of N’Tillit in northern Mali, which drove over 3,700 Burkinabé refugees and native Malians to seek sanctuary in the 120-kilometer away city of Gao.
According to a UNHCR representative, the bulk of the displaced are women and children who, out of fear for their lives, trekked for hours without food in search of safety.
