A newly dug mass-grave for some of the massacred villagers. The shoe – forgotten on the ground, serves as a tragic reminder of this ongoing ethnic cleansing, performed by the Malian army and the Africa Corps in total inpunity, which is a crime against humanity.
#Mali: Amid international silence, a genocide is quietly unfolding in Tuareg villages.
By Mohamed AG Ahmedou, journalist and civil society activist in Mali [Analysis].
In northwestern Mali, joint patrols of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and Russian mercenaries from Afrika Korps systematically target Tuareg and Fulani communities.
Between methodical destruction, summary executions, and forced displacement, the violence committed in late November 2025 reveals the signs of a slow-moving genocide, a deliberate act of deliberate violence ignored by the international community.
A November marked by bloodshed.
From November 25 to 27, 2025, the Timbuktu region was traversed by a series of particularly violent military operations. Residents describe Malian soldiers accompanied by Russian units advancing from village to village, firing heavy weapons, burning homes, destroying food supplies, and executing civilians.
Nearly identical scenes were repeated in Razelma, Amaranane, Tissikoreye, Émimalane, Takara, Toroma, Zouéra, Nijhaltate, and in several hamlets within the Gargando commune.
Witnesses recounted villages surprised at dawn, men executed in front of their families, women abducted or shot, children killed by heavy machine-gun fire, and elders taken alive before being burned alive.
All the targeted populations belong to the Kel Aghazaf, Kel Ansar, and Inatabane communities, or to Fulani pastoral families. All had already reported repeated violence and harassment since the deployment of Wagner and Afrika Korps to the region in 2023 and 2024.
A logic of destruction that can no longer be dismissed as mere “security operations.”
Far from being military clashes, these operations are part of a clear strategy: to eliminate civilians, destroy livelihoods, starve survivors, and force them into exile.
Soldiers tear open sacks of grain, kill animals, set fire to shops, dynamite tents, and sabotage water points. In some villages, residents found wells filled with sand or garbage, a method already observed in other areas controlled by the Russians in the Central African Republic.
This scorched-earth policy aims to make all life impossible. In several communities, men have fled to Lake Faguibine, women have taken refuge in Essakane, and some families have walked for hours to Goundam to escape the patrols.
Genocide is not defined solely by the number of deaths, but by the systematic destruction of the conditions necessary for the existence of a human group.
A politically responsible junta.
Since 2022, Bamako has made Africa Corps and ex-Wagner fighters the cornerstone of its security strategy. The junta presents each operation as “a success against terrorists.” Yet, there is no evidence of armed combatants in the villages targeted in late November.
The victims are all civilians identified locally. The systematic presence of joint units, the repetition of the same methods, the close surveillance of survivors, and the absence of any national investigation point to the Malian regime’s direct responsibility for these crimes.
Some Malian soldiers, originally from the region, have even confided to their families their intention to leave the ranks after discovering the fate of civilians they knew personally.
International silence, a second crime.
Since the first massacres attributed to Africa Corps in 2023, no firm reaction has been recorded.
The UN is paralyzed by power struggles.
ECOWAS, weakened, remains silent.
The African Union is resorting to diplomatic caution.
Western powers are prioritizing limited confrontation with Moscow over the protection of civilians.
This silence creates a climate of total impunity.
It legitimizes, by omission, the continuation of the attacks.
It fosters the idea that some lives matter less than others.
The villagers of the region are not simply demanding an investigation: they are demanding that the dead be acknowledged, that the survivors be protected, and that the systematic destruction of their lives no longer be ignored.
Victims and Targeted Localities (November 25–27, 2025): (Presented in the style of Le Monde Afrique infographics)
Amaranane (Kel Aghazaf community – 4 identified deaths)
Oumar AG Mohamed, known as Idabsa
Hamad Ahmed AG Mohamed AG Aamri
Mohamedoune AG Mohamed AG Aamri
Son of Oumar AG Kamoussa (name pending)
Nijhaltate (Kel Ansar community – 4 confirmed deaths + 3 probable)
Confirmed deaths:
Attaye AG Alladi, 41 years old
Mohamed Aboubacrine AG Hamadi, 38 years old
Tafa Walat Attaye AG Alladi (girl)
Fadimata Walet Efad AG Ahmedou AG Lissou, 20 years old
Probable deaths, pending identification:
Two unidentified women An unidentified girl.
Other reported victims (investigation ongoing):
Takouberte Walet Ibrahim AG Hamadi.
Aïcha Walet Hammani, 28 years old.
Timma Walat Hamadi.
Hayou Walat Hamadi.
Other affected localities:
Émimalane: 1 dead
Takara: 2 dead
Toroma: 2 dead, including a herder in his flock
Zouéra & Tissikoreye: looting, animal slaughter, targeted destruction.
Gargando (Idawdakane – Tinalfaghayamane):
Alla Ag Aljoumat, known as Arzanat, 80 years old, arrested and then burned alive by Africa Corps.
Two civilians taken prisoner (including a Fulani herder).
Devastation of the hamlets of Akambou and Ingargouze.
A red line has been crossed.
The violence at the end of November is not an isolated incident. These attacks are part of a series of coordinated attacks targeting the same communities, using the same methods, the same actors, and with the same effects.
A people can be destroyed in many ways:
Through massacres, terror, famine, and the gradual disappearance of their territories.
This is the process at work in Mali.
And as long as the world turns a blind eye, the worst will remain possible.
PS: The video shows bullets fired from the weapons that attacked the gathering of women, children, and men in the village of Nijhaltate by the Malian army under Assimi Goïta and Russian soldiers from Afrika Korps.
Russian interference through its military/mercenaries and Turkish interference through its drone industry are killing civilians in Mali.
28-11-25