OBSERVATORY OF CITIZEN WATCH FOR THE DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE AZAWAD PEOPLE, « ASSOCIATION KAL AKAL »
REPORT No. 09/AKA/2024
Period: August
Date: September 1, 2024
Introduction:
The Kal Akal Association is a citizen watch observatory dedicated to the defense of human rights for the Azawad people. In line with its founding principles, it fights for social justice through the promotion and protection of culture, development, education, and, above all, broader human rights.
Although the association’s headquarters are located in the Kidal region, its activities cover all regions of Azawad and, as far as possible, the central areas of Mali close to Azawad.
Since the onset of the ongoing conflict in August 2023, the association has exclusively focused on collecting and documenting human rights violations committed against the populations of Azawad and the center by the Malian junta’s army and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, as well as by JNIM and EIGS.
The association has local representatives across Azawad tasked with gathering information for processing and documentation.
August was marked by a series of intense and deadly drone strikes indiscriminately targeting civilian and military infrastructure under the responsibility of the junta’s army and its allies throughout the Kidal region, particularly in Tinzawatene.
Several dozen civilians, including children among the displaced who had fled the atrocities of Wagner and the junta’s army in Ménaka, Gao, and Kidal, as well as gold miners of various nationalities, perished in these strikes just a few kilometers from the Algerian border.
In parallel with this deadly campaign targeting unarmed civilians, the theft and/or slaughter of animals and other property continues. Arrests and enforced disappearances are carried out without interruption. This is the gruesome reality of daily human rights violations targeting the civilian populations of Azawad, their property, and their basic infrastructure.
This document reports all human rights violations recorded and reported by our local representatives in Azawad and, to some extent, in the central regions of the country during August. The perpetrators, locations, dates, and circumstances are noted to facilitate the traceability of crimes and their perpetrators, accomplices, and sponsors.
I. Attempted Massacres, Massacres/Executions :
Kal Akal recorded 64 confirmed cases in August, including the most notable:
– August 2, 2024: Three lifeless bodies were found in the Inbater valley. These individuals were arrested in December 2023 by Wagner-FAMA in Ibdakan, 50 km west of Kidal, along with others whose whereabouts remain unknown.
– August 9, 2024: A Wagner-FAMA patrol executed four civilians, including Boka Ag Hamata, in Intarcha, southwest of Nampala.
– August 15, 2024: A civilian named Boucary was killed in Moribougou Torobé, Dilly commune, Nara region, by Wagner-FAMA.
– August 17-18, 2024 : Assassination of two teachers in Arabebé, Niafunké circle, by unidentified armed men. They were:
1. Bokary Kisso Bokoum, school principal in Arabebé;
2. Ousmane A Daou, school principal in Goundam, Teskel. They had been kidnapped on August 5.
– August 18, 2024: A mass grave was discovered in Eghaf-in Elewidj in the Eghachar Sadidane valley, 25 km northeast of Kidal after heavy rain. These victims were arrested by Wagner-FAMA. It is believed they were killed long ago and hastily buried.
– August 25, 2024: Two young men from the Songhoy community were executed by Wagner-FAMA near Arhabou.
– August 25, 2024: Several drone strikes in Tinzawatene initially targeted a pharmacy and then a group of people gathered around the damage caused by the first strike.
The results of these strikes were as follows:
– Damage to the pharmacy and the death of its manager;
– The death of 30 civilians, including 11 children among the displaced who had sought refuge in Tinzawatene after the Wagner-FAMA massacres;
– Several injured and significant material damage.
– August 26, 2024: Assassination of a notable in Gawinané in the Nioro region by JNIM for refusing to pay zakat.
– August 27, 2024: Assassination at home of the village chief of Hama-koira, Souboundou in the Niafunké circle by JNIM elements.
– August 27, 2024: A Wagner-FAMA helicopter operation killed two civilians in Marate, near Aguelhoc.
II. Rapes:
The association did not receive any reports of confirmed rape cases. However, on August 8, 2024, Kal Akal obtained a video via a mobile phone seized from a Wagner mercenary during the Tinzawatene fighting. The video shows an interrogation of a terrified woman, forced to undress for denying any knowledge of armed men. Kal Akal has this video in its database.
III. Arrests/Disappearances/Kidnappings:
In August, the Kal Akal association recorded at least 30 mixed cases of arrests, disappearances, and kidnappings.
For reference, we highlight the following cases:
– August 2, 2024: Arrest of a community leader in Ménaka by Wagner-FAMA at his home;
– *August 20, 2024: Three civilians traveling from Tassik to Kidal were reported missing;
– August 26, 2024: Five civilians were kidnapped between Tessalit and Aguelhoc by Wagner-FAMA.
IV. Torture/Injuries:
Several cases were reported following the series of drone strikes in Tinzawatene and elsewhere.
Destructions, Looting, Theft, and Other Material Damages:
August was particularly marked by significant destruction and theft. Beyond the massacres and arrests of civilians, the rush for the property of the population is one of the motivating factors for Wagner mercenaries and elements of the Malian junta who accompany them on patrols.
During this month, many cases of theft and destruction were recorded, attributed to Wagner and the Malian junta’s army. A few examples, among many others, indicate the nature and extent of the damages:
– August 2, 2024: A Wagner-FAMA mission from Kidal passed through Touzek and Aguelhoc, where they ransacked homes, stole from shops, and took ten (10) goats.
– August 8, 2024: Several cattle were brutally slaughtered and dismembered in Tawouloste, Aguelhoc by Wagner-FAMA.
– August 9, 2024: Wagner-FAMA raided Tassik, 50 km southwest of Kidal, committing the following damages:
– 1 vehicle and 4 motorcycles belonging to civilians were burned;
– 1 vehicle and 2 motorcycles were taken;
– Shops were looted and/or vandalized.
– In Timbuktu (Abaraz): On multiple occasions, notably August 10-11, 16, and 17, 2024, families were reportedly besieged, threatened with weapons, and searched by Wagner and the junta’s army. These nighttime operations, conducted based on racial profiling, resulted in the disappearance of three individuals.
– August 11, 2024: Wagner-FAMA invaded Abawin, 35 km from Bourem, on the road to Temera in a camp. After searching the village, they tied up and took a civilian, stole phones charging in the village mosque.
– August 14, 2024: Wagner-FAMA raided Emnaguil, Anchawadj, 45 km northeast of Gao. Several shops were looted and loaded into trucks dispatched from Gao. Other shops were also pillaged. Six people were arrested and released two days later.
– August 15, 2024: In the Mourdiah district, in the village of Namaniguila, armed men stormed in, searched homes, and took various goods such as motorcycles, money, clothing, and more.
– August 20, 2024:
A herd of cattle and small ruminants was stolen from the village of Baji Haoussa and Ansongo by unidentified armed men.
– August 23, 2024: Two unidentified armed individuals stole a herd of animals near the village of Bintagoungou, Goundam.
– August 30, 2024: Theft and looting of property belonging to indigenous people who fled Wagner-FAMA atrocities in Kidal were carried out by known thieves and loiterers in the community.
Conclusion:
In accordance with its sacred mission of citizen vigilance and the defense of human rights, and in harmony with its founding texts, the Akal Akal association strongly condemns the daily human rights violations perpetrated by Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group alongside elements of the Malian junta’s army.
The Kal Akal association firmly denounces the silence of the international community and human rights organizations, which seems to trivialize human life.
The Kal Akal association calls upon ECOWAS, the African Union, the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and others to consider the civilian populations of Azawad and the central regions as equal to the populations of other areas and to take appropriate action to protect them against targeted ethnic cleansing. It especially urges these organizations not to lend credence to the narrative promoted by some juntas that deliberately label civilians as terrorists to justify massacres.
The Kal Akal association makes an urgent appeal to human rights organizations and all international mechanisms for the protection and defense of human rights to take a serious interest in the « crimes in Azawad and the central regions » case, to ensure that the perpetrators, co-perpetrators, sponsors, and accomplices of targeted ethnic cleansing crimes face full justice.
Finally, the Kal Akal association reminds the Turkish Muslim state of its responsibility in the massacres of Azawadian and central region civilians through the drones it supplies to a junta that predominantly targets civilian areas, as evidenced by all drone strike images and damages. The association urges Turkey to reconsider any contracts for training, equipping, or selling drones to the Malian junta to save innocent civilians.
Images below of massacres committed by Wagner-FAMA against civilians:
1. Civilians beheaded by FAMA-Wagner near Nampala on the Mauritanian border on August 9, 2024
2. A civilian executed by FAMA-Wagner in Maribougou in the Nara region on August 15, 2024.
3. Children killed during a Malian drone strike in Ikharabane-Tinzawatene on August 25, 2024.
4. A parent carrying his child, a victim of the strikes in Tinzaouatene on August 25, 2024.
Note:
1. Reports from the Kal Akal Association are for informational purposes only.
2. The Association has a detailed database available for in-depth investigations.
