- Category
- World
Russian Africa Corps and Malian Troops Accused of Killing Civilians and Arranging Remains Into Swastika
Prefer U24 Media on Google
- Authors
![Photo of Roman Kohanets]( "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
Russia's Africa Corps and Mali's army killed four civilians in northern Mali this week, then arranged one victim's dismembered body into a swastika, according to French broadcaster RFI.
Local residents and a Malian rights group reported that the dead were known herders with no ties to armed groups.
We bring you stories from the ground. Your support keeps our team in the field.
The killings took place on June 23 near the villages of Zarho and Abakoïra, three kilometers apart, where the Timbuktu and Gao regions meet, RFI reported. A joint patrol of Malian troops and African Corps fighters had passed through the area.
Residents near Zarho then found two bodies and a staged scene. The dismembered remains of one victim were found arranged in the shape of a swastika on the sand, with the severed head positioned in the center of the limbs.
Near Abakoïra, a drone strike by the same patrol killed two young men on a motorbike. Riding motorbikes outside major towns has been banned since early June to limit the movement of armed groups.
-74bb0af73c3738cbf23541e6b5e8370b.jpg)
Local sources identified the four as civilians—two Tuaregs at Zarho and two Songhai at Abakoïra—herders whose names were known and who had no links to armed groups.
The Africa Corps is the Kremlin-controlled successor to the Wagner Group. Russian-backed forces in Mali have faced repeated accusations of killing civilians, and Wagner's brutality has been documented well beyond the country.
Russia's mercenary presence across the Sahel trades security for fragile juntas in return for influence and resources, while the same fighters and Kremlin equipment are stretched between Africa and the war in Ukraine.
The network has long been accused of treating civilians as expendable and of channeling African recruits toward Russia's front lines. Ukraine's military intelligence has described the model in blunt terms: cheap mercenaries, looted minerals, evaded sanctions, the broadcaster added.
The local human-rights collective CD-DPA condemned the killings as cruel and justifiable by nothing. Its secretary general, Tilla Ag Zeini, stated that the staging broke humanitarian law and was meant to terrorize the population.
"When you find a human being cut up to form a Nazi symbol, by a regular army, it's truly shocking," he told RFI.
The Africa Corps, which has often posted on social media since the attacks on April 25, has made no public comment on the scene.
The drone used near Abakoïra fits a pattern of Russian war material crossing from Ukraine into the Sahel. Weeks earlier, the wreckage of an upgraded Garpiya-A1 attack drone was recovered near Sévaré in central Mali—the first confirmed use of the Shahed-type system outside the war against Ukraine.
The Garpiya-A1 is Russia's domestic version of the Iranian-designed Shahed-136. Roughly 500 drones were fielded each month in Ukraine during 2025, providing Russian manufacturers with large-scale testing before the weapon reached Africa.
Discuss this article:
-4a56a6b482ec132402c16ef6fcabf9a2.png)
-37bccdf8a11530b8187f00e534854b89.jpg "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a joint press conference with Madagascar’s Foreign Minister following their talks in Moscow on June 19, 2026. (Source: Getty Images)")
-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
