Wagner group under intense scrutiny by ICC

The Wagner Group, a Russia-linked mercenary network, is under intense scrutiny as the International Criminal Court (ICC) reviews confidential reports accusing it of committing war crimes in West Africa. Africanews reports that this marks the first time the court is examining whether sharing graphic images of atrocities on social media, particularly in Mali, can itself be classified as a war crime. According to the reports, Wagner’s involvement in Mali has led to a disturbing rise in war crimes, with mercenaries allegedly recording and sharing brutal acts – such as beheadings and dismemberments – on platforms like Telegram. Lindsay Freeman, from the Human Rights Centre at UC Berkeley School of Law, explained: ‘Since Wagner entered the fight in Mali, there has been an escalation in war crimes and human rights violations, including brutal beheadings, dismemberment, and things that we know about because they are recording themselves doing it and self-publishing this to their social media accounts on Telegram.’

The ICC's investigation will focus on whether posting these gruesome images constitutes a violation of international law. Freeman also noted that the shared images are generating significant online engagement, with some channels even profiting from the disturbing content. ‘The more graphic the material has gotten, the more engagement these channels are getting, and the more the group has grown,’ she said. In addition to Wagner, the reports urge the ICC to investigate the Governments of Mali and Russia for their roles in alleged atrocities between December 2021 and July 2024. These abuses include extrajudicial killings, torture, mutilation and cannibalism in northern and central Mali. Beverly Ochieng, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, warned that Wagner’s departure would not significantly change the security situation in Mali. ‘Russia intends to continue staying in the country as what is now known as the Africa Corps, which is still made up of Wagner forces. We are likely to see a continued trend in violence, particularly by the al-Qaida group, which retaliates against Russia.’ According to africanews, as the US and other Western powers withdraw from the region, Russia is deepening military ties with several African nations, with Wagner playing a central role. The network’s close links to Russia’s intelligence and military services signal a continued Russian influence across Africa.

In the videos, men in military uniform are shown butchering corpses of what appear to be civilians with machetes, hacking out organs and posing with severed limbs, reports the Washington Post. One fighter says he is about to eat someone’s liver. Another says he is trying to remove their heart. Violence in the Sahel, an arid belt of land south of the Sahara Desert, has reached record levels as military governments battle extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Turning from Western allies like the US and France, the Governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have instead embraced Russia and its mercenary fighters as partners in offensives. Observers say the new approach has led to the kind of atrocities and dehumanisation not seen in the region for decades. Social media offers a window into the alleged horrors that often occur in remote areas with little or no oversight from governments or outside observers. Under the Rome Statute that created the ICC, the violation of personal dignity, mainly through humiliating and degrading treatment, constitutes a war crime. The brief was submitted to the ICC before the US sanctioned the court earlier this year. It asks the court to investigate individuals with Wagner and the Governments of Mali and Russia for alleged abuses in northern and central Mali between December 2021 and July 2024, including extrajudicial killings, torture, mutilation and cannibalism. It also asks the court to investigate crimes 'committed through the internet, which are inextricably linked to the physical crimes and add a new dimension of harm to an extended group of victims'.

Meanwhile, analysts do not expect tactics of the Russian paramilitary groups to change despite the transfer of Wagner assets in Mali to Africa Corps, pointing to human rights violations, according to a report in the Sunday Tribune. ‘The brutal counterinsurgency tactics, such as massacres and collective punishment, are structural, not just personal,’ said Tbilisi-based security researcher Nicholas Chkhaidze. According to the RAND Corporation, at least half of Africa Corps’ personnel are Wagner veterans, with priority given to those who fought in Ukraine, many of them former convicts. According to a report published last week by a journalist collective, in its more than three years in Mali, Wagner kidnapped, detained and tortured hundreds of civilians. The victims spoke about waterboarding, beatings with electrical cables and being burned with cigarette butts. Bakary Sambe, executive director at the Timbuktu Institute think tank in Dakar, said for Malians, the distinction between the two Russian paramilitary groups was largely artificial. ‘In the eyes of the population, this is merely a name change with no positive developments in one of the worst security situations in 10 years,’ Sambe said.

Chkhaidze says the transfer of Wagner assets to Africa Corps, which is a state-co-ordinated mechanism of influence, is more than symbolic, as it demonstrates a strategic transition from proxy to a power chain operated by the government. According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Central African Republic is the ‘last bastion’ of Wagner operations in Africa, with the Russian Defence Ministry trying to replace Wagner with Africa Corps there, too. Beverly Ochieng, an Africa analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the Kremlin sees the Sahel as a region where the Russians can have a geopolitical strategic presence and counter Western influence, reports the Tribune. ‘The Kremlin will continue to provide direct support to Africa Corps, they’ll continue sending in shipments of equipment and weapons,' she said. We’ll see a steady pace of violence by the al-Qaida group in resistance to the involvement of Russia,' she added. ‘In the eyes of the population, this is merely a name change with no positive developments in one of the worst security situations in 10 years,’ Sambe said.