(May 20, 2025) – Mali’s government should credibly and independently investigate the apparent extrajudicial executions of at least 22 men taken in military custody on May 12, 2025, in the town of Diafarabé, central Mali, Human Rights Watch said today. Residents who saw the bodies three days later said the victims were in two shallow mass graves with their throats slit.
On May 16, the chief of staff of the Malian armed forces announced a gendarmerie investigation into the disappearance of civilians in Diafarabé and that a military team was deployed to the town to collect testimonies and organize searches. A military investigation of an alleged massacre by soldiers raises grave concerns that the inquiry will not be independent or impartial, Human Rights Watch said.
“The killing of at least 22 men in military custody puts a burden on the Malian authorities to demonstrate that its investigation is credible and to make public its findings,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Authorities should fully and fairly prosecute all those responsible and promptly provide compensation to the victims’ families.”
Between May 13 and 18, Human Rights Watch interviewed by phone five people who witnessed the arrests, one man who was arrested and survived the executions, and five others with knowledge of the incident. Local sources gave Human Rights Watch a list of 22 victims, all ethnic Fulani men between the ages of 32 and 67. The witnesses also said five additional men were arrested, including at least one ethnic Tamasheq, but their names and ages were not known.
Witnesses told Human Rights Watch that the arrests took place between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. during a military operation in Diafarabé, along the Niger River in Mali’s central Mopti region. They said that Malian soldiers took in custody at least 22 Fulani men who were trading at the local cattle market and took them to the river. There, soldiers apprehended at least five other men, loaded them onto a canoe, and took them across the river.
“Armed soldiers wearing Malian military uniforms entered the market on foot and started arresting Fulani traders,” a 53-year-old trader said. “They tied their hands behind their back before they took them to the river and blindfolded them.”
Witnesses said at around 2 p.m. on the same day, they saw the soldiers return to town without the arrested men. The following day, women staged a protest in front of the Diafarabé military base calling on soldiers to provide information about their relatives, without success.
Additional residents joined the protest, which continued until May 15, when the military agreed to escort a delegation of approximately 19 people from Diafarabé to the site across the Niger river where the arrested men were taken.
“We found about 22 bodies in two poorly dug mass graves,” said a man whose father was among those killed and went to the location of the killings with soldiers. “All the men had their throats slashed, some appeared almost decapitated. It was so horrible that even a military commander who was accompanying us had to sit down not to faint.”
The bodies were exhumed and reburied in the two mass graves at the execution site.
A man who was detained and escaped the executions said: “I was not blindfolded well.… [S]oldiers used our scarves to cover our eyes, but I could see what was going on.” He said that after they crossed the river, the soldiers took them to a place located near the Diafarabé cemetery and ordered them to sit down. “Then, they took people in small groups of two or three and slit their throats.… I could hear the loud screaming.” He said that when soldiers were coming for him, he ran away. “As I stood, the scarf covering my eyes fell and I ran as fast as I could … [S]oldiers shot at me three times, but I wasn’t hit.… [A] soldier chased me, but I hid … I heard soldiers in the back telling the one chasing me, ‘If you don’t catch him, we will kill you.’” The survivor said that he waited until soldiers left to cross the river again.
International media also reported on the Diafarabé killings.
On May 16, Human Rights Watch contacted the Malian authorities to share its findings on the events in Diafarabé and seek a response. At the time of publication, the Malian authorities had not responded.
The massacre occurred amid the security and humanitarian crisis that Mali has been grappling with since 2012, when Islamist armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Sahel began carrying out major attacks. These armed groups, which have largely recruited from the Fulani community, have attacked civilians as well as government security forces throughout Mali. The conflict has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians and forcibly displaced over 350,000 more.
Witnesses in Diafarabé said they believe the soldiers targeted Fulani men, whom they accused of collaborating with the Islamist fighters. The Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) is present in the Mopti region where it frequently carries out attacks against the security forces and allied militias.
Human Rights Watch has extensively documented serious abuses by the Malian security forces during counterinsurgency operations across Mali, including mass killings, enforced disappearances of civilians, and unlawful drone strikes.
All parties to Mali’s armed conflict are bound by international humanitarian law, notably Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and customary laws of war. Common Article 3 prohibits violence against anyone in custody, “in particular murder of all kinds.” Individuals who commit serious violations of the laws of war with criminal intent, that is, intentionally or recklessly, may be prosecuted for war crimes. Commanders may be liable for war crimes as a matter of command responsibility if they knew or should have known about abuses by forces under their control but did not stop or punish them.
“The commander of the Diafarabé military base should be immediately suspended pending the outcome of a thorough investigation,” Allegrozzi said. “The authorities need to take all necessary measures to ensure that survivors and witnesses to this incident are protected.”
