In Mali drone campaigns, civilians often victims: report

Drone strikes by Mali's armed forces have frequently occurred in civilian areas and have resulted in civilian deaths, according to a report by the investigative collective Bellingcat and French-language magazine Jeune Afrique.

Human rights organisations have repeatedly accused the Malian army and its Africa Corps paramilitary allies of killing civilians during operations in the west African country.

Mali has been wracked since 2012 by a serious security crisis, notably fuelled by violence from jihadists allied to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, along with criminal gangs and armed separatists.

According to the report released Wednesday, the drone strikes have most often occurred in northern Mali against "vehicles or commercial activity", with local news reports afterwards describing precision attacks on combatants.

But Bellingcat noted multiple civilian deaths and injuries across more than a dozen drone strikes that it was able to geolocate, with Jeune Afrique placing the civilian death toll across those attacks at 146.

Over a three-year period (from September 2023 to August 2026), the toll stood at 731 civilian casualties from 199 strikes by the Malian military and its allies, Jeune Afrique said.

The report comes amid an uptick in violence since late April when the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and its Tuareg separatist allies began a series of attacks aimed at weakening the country's junta rulers.

Several experts who spoke to Bellingcat said that civilians easily become targets because of their location or involvement in activities such as transporting fuel or mining.

It described several cases, including one in which the Malian army carried out a drone strike in the town of Zouera in the Timbuktu region in July 2025.

The army called the operation successful and said it was conducted against a supply vehicle for terrorists.

However, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported that four people, including three young girls, were killed in the strike. It said five others were treated for injuries.

In another instance in the town of Amasrakad in March 2024, two drone strikes killed 13 civilians, according to Jeune Afrique and Amnesty International.

Eyewitnesses said that a vehicle was first struck, and then a nearby compound where residents had fled for shelter.

Afterwards, the Malian armed forces said they had "neutralised several terrorists and destroyed a significant quantity of military equipment and vehicles".

Mali's ruling junta, which came to power in two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, has turned its back on Western partners and moved closer to Russia, whose Africa Corps paramilitaries are assisting the country in its fight.