Source: Amnesty International –
Summary killings of at least 19 Malian soldiers by members of armed groups in Tabrichat, a village in the Gao region, in central Mali, must be investigated as war crimes, Amnesty International said after analyzing video footage of the incident which took place after the soldiers were ambushed on 18 July.
Amnesty International analyzed 12 videos published on social media that help reconstruct the incident. Three videos show a group of at least 19 Malian soldiers walking in the desert with their hands behind their heads, clearly surrendering. Another video shows a group of men on the ground and five armed men firing at them. A close-up video shows the bodies of the men who had been filmed moments earlier surrendering. The videos also show the armed men subjecting prisoners to acts of ill-treatment by manhandling and beating them.
“In the footage Amnesty International has reviewed, it is clear that the soldiers were hors de combat before being subjected to ill-treatment and killed in execution style. Any person out of action, including soldiers taken prisoner or having surrendered, must be protected under international humanitarian law. The evidence of war crimes is irrefutable,” said Ousmane Diallo, Senior Researcher on Sahel at Amnesty International’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa.
In two videos, a white flag, characteristic of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Groupe de Soutien à l’Islam et aux Musulmans – GSIM) appeared on the front of the attackers’ vehicles.
A total of 17 videos were shared on X accounts and on a Telegram channel associated with the Russian private military company Wagner Group, which was active in Mali between 2022 and June 2025.
In a statement dated 18 July, the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) claimed responsibility for the ambush in Tabrichat of Malian soldiers and allied Russian fighters from Africa Corps and stated that it had inflicted ‘significant loss of life and considerable damage to property’. The GSIM also claimed to have ambushed a joint convoy of Malian military and Russian Africa Corps fighters in the area of Tabrichat, mentioning ‘human casualties and serious material damage in the ranks of the enemy’.