Islamic State-linked militants have slaughtered up to 70 civilians in Mali, with some burned alive.
The killings were in apparent retaliation for an attack on suspected informants by pro-government forces including members of Russia's Africa Corps, according to security sources and local officials.
The violence at the weekend in the eastern Menaka region comes amid intensifying combat between the regional Islamic State group and al Qaeda affiliates, compounding insecurity in West Africa's Sahel region.
The attacks by fighters from Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) took place in at least five localities in Menaka and the overall toll was still being determined on Tuesday.
They appeared to be in response to abuses allegedly carried out last week in the area by a pro-government militia known as MSA and Africa Corps, the Russian paramilitary group that backs Bamako.
'The militiamen from MSA who accompanied (Mali's army) and Africa Corps committed abuses against civilians suspected of being informants for the Islamic State,' a municipal official in Menaka said.
'They killed about a dozen people, set fire to houses, and stole other property.'
During the retaliatory attacks on Sunday, ISSP set houses on fire and stole livestock, sending hundreds of civilians fleeing to Menaka town, according to the sources, who provided provisional death tolls ranging from 48 to more than 70.
The attacks by fighters from Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) took place in at least five localities in Menaka and the overall toll was still being determined on Tuesday. [File photo]
Some of the civilians died in the fires and others were shot.
ISSP has not claimed responsibility for the incident.
A Malian military spokesperson and Russia's embassy in Bamako did not respond to a request for comment.
Mali has previously denied killing civilians in counterinsurgency operations.
Mali has been battling insurgents since 2012 when Tuareg separatists and al Qaeda-linked militants first swept across the country's north, triggering a French military intervention.
The regional al Qaeda affiliate, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), and the Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front staged nationwide attacks in April that killed the defence minister and hit the main airport in Bamako.
In recent weeks JNIM has been locked in fierce fighting with ISSP.
Last week, ISSP said it had killed 400 JNIM fighters after thwarting an attempted JNIM ambush in neighbouring Burkina Faso, which if confirmed would make it the deadliest single battle between the two groups.
ISSP and JNIM engaged in their first skirmishes in 2019 and have since clashed hundreds of times, resulting in more than 2,000 deaths, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a conflict monitoring group.
Mali's armed forces and their Russian backers utilised some 'apparent indiscriminate' drone strikes and other abuses as part of an ramped-up offensive against insurgents in recent months that has killed scores of civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Monday.
The drone strikes and resulting civilian casualties more than doubled between April and August, compared to the same period a year ago, the report said citing ACLED data, in response to nationwide attacks by JNIM and Tuareg-led separatists.
Mali's military leaders, who seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021, have turned to Russia for support in their fight against insurgents, and they enlisted the Russian paramilitary group Africa Corps in their response to the April attacks.
The data from US-based conflict monitor ACLED showed Malian forces and Africa Corps carried out 47 drone strikes resulting in 94 civilian deaths from April-August, up from 22 strikes resulting in 44 civilian deaths a year earlier.
Some of the incidents in the report were 'apparent indiscriminate drone strikes,' including an August 19 strike on a cattle market in the Bandiagara region of central Mali that killed six men, and a pre-dawn strike on July 29 on a health centre in the northern region of Kidal, near the Algerian border, Human Rights Watch said.
The report also documented abuses that did not involve drones, including an incident on July 12 in the Segou region in which it said soldiers shot and killed five young girls they mistook for attackers.
The Human Rights Watch report also documented abuses by JNIM and the Tuareg-led separatists, including the execution of 19 soldiers in the northern Gao region in July.
JNIM's Sharia Committee told HRW that the killings 'did in fact take place' but denied ordering them and said 'it is not our policy to do such things'.
The Tuareg-led Azawad Liberation Front denied executing soldiers.