Background

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso left ECOWAS in January and formed a confederation in July. In March, the military government extended the political transition period which had followed the 2020 military coup.

The 2015 peace agreement between the government and northern separatist groups collapsed and fighting continued in the north. Islamist armed groups continued to attack military positions and local communities, while Russian foreign military personnel fought alongside government forces. Nearly 331,000 people had been internally displaced by 31 July according to UN figures. OCHA said that 32% of the population needed humanitarian assistance.

The Interministerial Committee on Crisis and Disaster Management said 264,646 people were affected by floods which caused at least 177 deaths by October.

Arbitrary arrests and detention

Those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly were frequently arbitrarily arrested and detained.

In March, Alpha Yaya Sangaré, a lieutenant colonel in the National Gendarmerie, was arrested following the publication of a book that contained allegations the army committed human rights violations against civilians. The accusations against him were not disclosed. Also in March, economist Etienne Fakaba Sissoko was arrested in relation to his book denouncing government use of “propaganda”.¹ In May, he was convicted of defamation, damaging the state’s reputation and distributing fake news, sentenced to three years’ imprisonment (one suspended) and fined. In November he lost his appeal against conviction.

On 27 May, 80-year-old Boubacar Karamoko Traoré was arrested at the Office of the Prime Minister and charged with “slighting the integrity of the state, contempt of court and dissemination of misleading statements likely to disturb the public order”. Karamoko Traoré was interim president of the strategic committee of the June 5th Movement–Rally of Patriotic Forces, which played a key role in the 2020 post-electoral protests. He had signed a memorandum condemning the military’s heavy-handed leadership tactics since 2020, and the decision to delay elections. He was sentenced to one year in prison, which was reduced to three months on appeal in September.

On 20 June, the gendarmerie arrested 11 politicians who were holding a meeting in Bamako, the capital, at the residence of the vice president of the Alliance for Democracy in Mali–African Party for Solidarity and Justice. On 24 June, after being presented to an investigating judge for a summary hearing, 10 of them were remanded in custody. On 5 July, Mohamed Aly Bathily was also arrested in connection with the meeting. He, along with the 10 others, was charged with “disturbing public order and plotting against the state”. On 9 September, the investigating judge ordered their provisional release. This was appealed by the prosecutor and they remained in Dioila prison until their release in December.

On 12 July, Youssouf Daba Diawara, former coordinator of the now-dissolved Coordination of Movements, Friends and Sympathizers of Imam Mahmoud Dicko (CMAS) was taken by unidentified armed men from his car to the gendarmerie’s Criminal Investigations Brigade. On 15 July, a judge charged him with “opposing legitimate authority” for participating in an unauthorized protest in June. He was provisionally released on 3 October.²

Enforced disappearances

The fate and whereabouts of several people arrested by the National Agency for State Security (intelligence services) remained unknown for prolonged periods.

In March, Hamadoun Dicko, member of civil society group Tabital Pulaaku Mali, was released after three months’ detention in an unknown location. Also in March, around 20 leaders of the now dissolved Malian Association of Students and Pupils (AEEM) were detained without charge in an unknown location until late June. Web activist Yeri Bocoum was forcibly disappeared for almost one month in June, after covering protests organized by the Synergy of Actions for Mali. In August, former MP Idrissa Sankaré was abducted and detained for 24 days.

Freedom of association

The government dissolved several civil society associations, including the Observatory for Elections and Good Governance, Kaoural Renouveau, CMAS, AEEM and the Synergy of Actions for Mali. Between 10 April and 10 July, the government suspended all activities by political parties. Also in April, the authorities banned media coverage of activities by political parties and “political associations”.

Unlawful killings

Parties to the conflict killed hundreds of civilians unlawfully; some killings may have amounted to crimes under international law.

Armed groups

On 3 January, 24 villagers of Boura, in the Sikasso region, were abducted by Dozo hunters. Days later, the bodies of 17 of them were discovered, according to local organization Tabital Pulaaku. On 6 January, Dozo hunters killed 13 people in Kalala-Peul village, in south-central Mali, near Ségou.

In May, suspected members of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) killed nine youths on the road between Goundam and Diré villages, in Timbuktu region, while they were participating in an army recruitment programme. In the same month, alleged GSIM members killed 19 internally displaced people on their farms in Diallassagou town, in the Mopti region, according to local and media sources. According to government sources, in July, they killed around 23 people in the villages of Djiguibombo and Sokorokanda in the Mopti region, destroying property, including a health centre. They also attacked Dembo village, also in Mopti, killing 20 smallholders.

Government forces

On 17 March, two army drone strikes caused at least 13 civilian deaths, including seven children, and injured more than 12 others in Amasrakad, Gao region.³ One week later, another drone strike hit a compound in Douna village, in the Mopti region, killing 14 people, including 11 children, and wounding nine others.

On 21 October, drone strikes killed eight civilians, including six children in Inadiatafane, Timbuktu region.⁴

Right to truth, justice and reparation

On 26 June, the ICC convicted al Hassan ag Abdoul Aziz of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was, however, acquitted of the war crimes and crimes against humanity of rape, sexual slavery and forced marriage, and the war crime of attacking protected objects.⁵ In November, the ICC sentenced him to 10 years’ imprisonment.

There was no progress in the investigations by national jurisdictions of war crimes committed in the Mopti region in the villages of Moura, in 2022, Ogossagou, in 2019 and 2020, and Sobane-Da, in 2019, among others.

Right to education

In January, the Global Education Cluster, a group of humanitarian NGOs, revealed that 1,657 schools were closed during 2023, and remained so, due to insecurity or humanitarian crisis, affecting 497,100 pupils and 9,942 teachers.

LGBTI people’s rights

In December, a new Criminal Code was adopted into law under which consensual same-sex sexual conduct was criminalized, and punishable by two years’ imprisonment and a fine.

1. “Mali: Arbitrarily detained author must be released: Etienne Fakaba Sissoko”, 31 May ↩︎
2. “Mali: Arbitrarily detained opposition leaders must be immediately released”, 19 July ↩︎
3. “Mali: Drone strikes killed 13 civilians including seven children in Amasrakad”, 27 March ↩︎
4. “Mali: Authorities must investigate deaths of at least eight civilians, including six children, after drone strikes in Inadiatafane”, 5 November ↩︎
5. Mali: ICC conviction of Al Hassan for war crimes and crimes against humanity provides a measure of justice for victims, 27 June ↩︎