Jihadists remain the biggest source of violence against civilians but there was an "exponential rise" in fatalities and other abuses linked to the armed forces, which are "supported by foreign military elements," the UN's MINUSMA peacekeeping force said.

The total number of people killed in the first quarter of 2022 by all parties in the conflict -- jihadists, militias, self-defence groups and security forces -- quadrupled over the last three months of 2021, rising from 128 to 543.

A total of 248 civilian deaths were attributable to the defence and security forces, the report said.

It recorded 320 violations of human rights during this period that could be blamed on government forces -- a tenfold increase over the last quarter of 2021, when 31 cases were documented.

The report did not identify the "foreign military elements" supporting the army.

The landlocked Sahel country has been battling a jihadist insurgency that flared in 2012.

In August 2020, soldiers disgruntled at the mounting military toll ousted the elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The junta then wove closer ties with Russia, bringing in personnel that it describes as military instructors, but which France and others say are operatives of Wagner, the controversial Kremlin-linked security firm.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that Malian soldiers and white foreign soldiers executed 300 civilians in Moura, in the centre of the country, between March 27-31.

Mali says it "neutralised" 203 jihadists in Moura.