Russian government-controlled Africa Corps fighters summarily killed nine civilians, including four children, and committed a series of serious abuses against residents of a village in central Mali in July 2026, according to a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday. The killings took place on 10 July in Bombori, a village in the Mopti region — a conflict-scarred area in central Mali that has been a stronghold of Islamist armed groups for years — and targeted the village's ethnic Fulani neighbourhood.

Just before dawn, more than 100 Africa Corps fighters arrived in pickup trucks and on motorbikes, accompanied by only three or four Malian soldiers who served primarily as interpreters. Forces broke into homes, dragged residents out, and rounded up at least 80 men and boys under a tree, beating them and demanding information about links to the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), known by its Arabic acronym. Six civilians were shot as they tried to flee; three others were detained and executed, one of whom was beheaded. When fighters departed around 2 p.m., residents recovered nine bodies: five men aged 19 to 34, and four children between six and 17 years old. Fighters also looted money and jewellery, and burned at least eight homes belonging to Fulani families. Crucially, witnesses told HRW that JNIM fighters had slipped out of the village the night before, meaning no militants were present during the operation.

Africa Corps is a Kremlin-controlled armed group that replaced the Russia-linked Wagner Group in Mali in mid-2025, retaining much of the same personnel and leadership. Mali's military junta, which came to power through coups in 2020 and 2021, had previously relied on Wagner for security assistance after expelling French and United Nations forces. The Fulani community has long been disproportionately targeted in Mali's counterinsurgency operations, as successive governments have conflated the ethnic group with Islamist fighters — a pattern HRW says has fuelled serious abuses.