By Mohamed AG Ahmedou, journalist and civil society activist in the Timbuktu and Taoudeni regions.
Scorched desert, looted villages, charred bodies.
On November 26, 2025, a joint patrol of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and Russian mercenaries from Africa Corps sowed death in several Tuareg hamlets near Razelma, in the Timbuktu region. Ten civilians were killed, including women and children, in what appears to be a methodical punitive operation against nomadic populations already weakened by repeated violence.
Testimonies gathered in the localities of Razelma, Gargando, Amaranane, and Nijhaltate describe a patrol divided into several detachments, operating simultaneously in multiple locations, combining summary executions, arson, looting, and destruction of civilian property.
Amaranane: Four men slaughtered and then burned.
One of the detachments struck in Amaranane, where four men from the Kel Aghazaf community, Sharifane of Razelma, were executed in particularly atrocious circumstances. They were slaughtered before being burned by Russian soldiers accompanied by Malian soldiers.
The victims are:
- Oumar AG Mohamed, nicknamed Idabsa
- Hamad Ahmed AG Mohamed AG Aamri
- Mohamedoune AG Mohamed AG Aamri
- The son of a man named Oumar AG Kamoussa
A resident described a scene of “silent brutality,” without warning or prior questioning.
Tissikoreye and Zouéra: Systematic Looting and Destruction:
The day before these executions, the same patrol had passed through the villages of Tissikoreye and Zouéra, leaving behind a scene of devastation.
A resident, who was with his father and uncles when the soldiers arrived, recounts:
“They went everywhere, in Tissikoreye and Zouéra, in my father’s village. They searched every hut, tore open sacks of grain, and then killed animals.”
In Tissikoreye, several houses and grain stores were burned, depriving families of shelter and what little food they have left in the middle of the dry season.
In Zouéra, shops were dynamited by the Russians of the Afrika Korps and their Malian auxiliaries, sowing panic among the inhabitants.
Nijhaltate: A Planned Massacre
The deadliest massacre took place in Nijhaltate, a village administratively part of the Gargando commune, where soldiers opened fire on civilians sitting in the shade of trees.
The identified victims are:
- Attaye AG Alladi, 41 years old
- Mohamed Aboubacrine AG Hamadi, 38 years old.
- Tafa Walat Attaye AG Alladi, a young girl.
- A second unidentified girl.
- Fadimata Walet Efad AG Ahmedou AG Lissou, 20 years old, wife of the slain victim, Mohamed Aboubacrine AG Hamadi.
- Two unidentified women.
But the actual death toll in the village is much higher. The following names, also from Nijhaltate, have been recorded:
- Takouberte Walet Ibrahim AG Hamadi.
- Aïcha Walet Hammani, 28 years old, mother of four.
- Timma Walat Hamadi, mother of Aïcha and sister of Mohamed Aboubacrine AG Hamadi.
- Hayou Walat Hamadi, sister of Timma and Mohamed Aboubacrine.
In total, eleven Tuareg victims from the Kel Ansar community, originally from Razelma and Tin-Aicha, were among those killed and wounded in Nijhaltate.
According to several witnesses, the village was bombarded with 12.7 mm heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, causing irreversible injuries and the immediate death of several women and children.
Soldiers then collected most of the shell casings to cover up the crime: only one 12.7 mm casing was found at the scene. They also took away the people they killed in Nijhaltate and three women, one of whom succumbed to her injuries en route and was buried with the other bodies. The two other women wounded in Nijhaltate arrived at the Goundam hospital late Wednesday night, November 26.
An eyewitness recounts:
“They came to kill. They didn’t ask any questions. They didn’t look for any weapons. They shot our families as soon as they arrived at the village entrance and took away the bodies and three wounded women, including a teenager.”
Three wounded women, including a teenager, were abducted by the soldiers.
A population already traumatized by drone strikes:
The region was already in mourning. Two weeks earlier, on November 13, 2025, Malian drone strikes had killed 13 Tuareg civilians in Tangata and Eghachar n’Tirikene, in the Gargando district, decimating entire families and creating a climate of lasting panic.
“Our people are caught in the crossfire: JNIM terrorists, Russian Afrika Korps soldiers, and Malian army drones,” summarized a local leader in Razelma.
“This is no longer a war against armed groups. It’s a war against our families.”
The inhabitants of the area, primarily nomadic herders living around Lake Faguibine, nevertheless reaffirm their determination to remain on their land.
“We would rather die here than flee to Mauritania or Algeria,” confides a herder from Gargando.
Despite the scale of the violence, no investigation has been opened. The Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and Africa Corps have not issued any statements. Impunity is total, lament local organizations, which denounce the increasing number of “sweeping missions” against Tuareg, Arab, and Fulani civilians.
The arrival of Africa Corps in 2024, intended to bolster Bamako’s security capabilities, has instead contributed to a dramatic increase in documented abuses against nomadic communities. These acts of violence, committed far from outside eyes, reopen the historical wounds of northern Mali and fuel the risk of reprisals.
A notable from Razelma, his voice choked with anger, concluded:
“What’s happening is no longer a military operation. It’s a cleansing of our villages.”
Mohamed AG Ahmedou
27-11-25