HRW said the attacks, which occurred amid recurrent tit-for-tat killings and communal violence in central Mali, violate international humanitarian law and are apparent war crimes.

Al-Qaeda-linked and warring ethnically-based armed groups are committing atrocities in Mali, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Wednesday.

Fighters from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (JNIM) and Dozo militia killed 45 people during separate attacks on two villages in Central Mali in January, the watchdog said in its report, in an apparent war crime that caused thousands to flee their homes.

JNIM fighters, largely Fulani, attacked the villages of Ogota and Ouembe on January 27, killing at least 32 people including three children, the report said, quoting villagers who described the carnage as ethnically motivated. The attackers set fire to over 350 homes and forced 2,000 people to flee.

The report also documented a separate incident on January 6 in which a Dozo armed group consisting mainly of ethnic Bambara killed 13 people and abducted 24 civilians in two other villages in central Mali. One of the attacked villages is Kalala, which has a predominantly Fulani population.

The attacks, which occurred amid recurrent tit-for-tat killings and communal violence in central Mali, violate international humanitarian law and are apparent war crimes, HRW stressed.

“Islamist armed groups and ethnic militias are brutally attacking civilians without fear of prosecution,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at HRW. “The authorities need to act to end the deadly cycles of violence and revenge killings and better protect threatened civilians.”

The attacks are part of a cycle of retaliatory killings in central Mali, where extremists and ethnic armed groups operate, HRW said. Some ethnic groups like the Fulani have been targeted by Dogon and Bambara militias, who accuse them of backing extremist groups such as JNIM.

Survivors of the attacks told HRW that they were targeted because of their ethnicity and called on the Malian government to do more to protect them.

Groups aligned with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group (ISIS) have operated in Mali since 2015, seizing territory and making swaths of the country ungovernable.

A military government seized power in 2021, promising to tackle insecurity, but attacks remain rife. The military itself faces several accusations of rights abuses.

Mali as well as its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger, where armed groups operate across porous borders, are all led by military governments that seized power in recent years. All three nations have expelled French forces that once helped push back the armed groups and have instead formed a security alliance, turning to Russia’s mercenary units for assistance.

Last December, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali pulled out of the country at the request of the military government.

HRW said authorities are failing to adequately investigate incidents implicating members of armed groups or ethnic militias.