The Malian armed forces arrested 22 people in Diafarabe during the weekly market last Monday before taking them across the Niger river to the village of Mamba, near the cemetery, where they were killed, a local official told AFP.

"They dug a mass grave and slit all their throats before putting them in it," another local source told AFP.

"Only one person escaped this fate. It was that person who informed the village that everyone had been killed."

FIDH accused the Malian armed forces of the summary execution of the civilians in a statement published on X on Friday.

Around 30 men were arrested in the area, but some were released, the statement said.

"Twenty-five others were taken away in boats. Their decapitated bodies, buried in two mass graves, were discovered by their relatives on May 15," FIDH added.

According to several witnesses, the men who were arrested were from the Fulani community, which is frequently targeted by accusations of links to jihadists.

The army said it was taking these accusations "very seriously" and promised police would carry out an "investigation that will confirm or deny the allegations," according to a statement from army headquarters published on Friday.

About 100 people marched in the streets of Diafarabe on Tuesday and Wednesday to demand news of the men seized by the military.

"They are not here to protect us. They came to finish off all the men in the village," the brother of one of the victims told AFP.

The Malian army and Wagner, a Russian paramilitary group reported to be operating in Mali, are regularly accused of committing abuses against civilians.

Three weeks ago, bodies were found near a Malian military camp in the west of the country, a few days after the army and Wagner paramilitaries detained dozens of civilians, most of them from the Fulani community.

In February, about 20 civilians were killed in northern Mali when their vehicles were targeted by the army and mercenaries, according to local sources.

Since coming to power in coups in 2020 and 2021, Mali's military leaders have broken off the its old alliance with former colonial power France and turned towards Russia.

Mali has been plagued since 2012 by jihadist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and Islamic State, as well as violence by community and criminal groups.

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