DOUANKARA — Thousands of Malians have crossed into Mauritania since late March, fleeing attacks by Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) and other armed groups in northern Mali. Many have settled in and around Douankara, a town in southeastern Mauritania.

JNIM, an al-Qaeda-allied group commanded by Iyad Ag Ghali, fields about 10,000 fighters and is pushing into southern Mali. The group attacks military bases and punishes communities it perceives as collaborating with the government. JNIM initially targeted fringe areas with little government control but later expanded its attacks as its forces and technical capacity, including drone use, grew.

On an evening in late March, 75-year-old Moctar gathered with his family and friends in Sondaje, a village in northern Mali, to plan their escape. For months, armed rival groups had raided homes in northern Mali, accusing villagers of collaborating with their enemies. Two of Moctar's cousins were killed in one such attack.

"The men came on about 30 motorbikes, observed the evening prayers with us in the mosque and then told us we had 72 hours to leave the village," Moctar said. He and his family fled that night, trying to avoid daytime patrols.

"We saw terrible things," Moctar said. "People were decapitated and their heads put on their chests. People were so scared. The fear in their eyes made us even more scared."

Mali's army and allied Russian fighters are in conflict with several al-Qaeda- and ISIL-affiliated groups that control swaths of rural Mali. All parties to the conflict have been accused of humanitarian violations. According to Heni Nsaibia, senior West Africa analyst at Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, in the past two years the Malian army and Russian fighters have inflicted more violence on civilians than the armed groups combined.

"There are no good sides in this conflict, and collective punishment has been a key feature," Nsaibia said. "It doesn't matter which side you are on. If you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, you are going to get killed."

Up to 2,000 Russian fighters are deployed in Mali. They were initially from the private Wagner Group, which was largely taken over by the Russian government and transformed into the Africa Corps, reporting to the Russian Ministry of Defence. The Africa Corps retains some Wagner mercenaries but employs a less aggressive approach. Russian fighters first arrived in Mali in 2021, one year after the military seized power from a civilian government. After the 2020 coup, about 4,000 French soldiers withdrew along with a UN peacekeeping force.

One refugee who fled to Mauritania described attacks by Russian fighters on nearby villages. "Wagner raped women in a village close to ours, but we decided to run before they came again to ours," the refugee said. "They came to our village and took everything they could: our jewellery, our blankets."