DAKAR (Reuters) -United Nations experts have called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by government forces and Russian private military contractor Wagner group in Mali, they said in a statement on Tuesday.
The West African country hired fighters from Russia’s Wagner group in 2021 to help it fight militant groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, which are waging a decade-long insurgency that has spread to neighbouring countries.
“Since 2021, the experts have received persistent and alarming accounts of horrific executions, mass graves, acts of torture, rape and sexual violence, pillaging, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances perpetrated by Malian armed forces and their allies,” said the statement.
(Reporting by Edward McAllister and Nellie PeytonEditing by Alexander Winning)
