DOUANKARA, Mauritania (AP) — The girl lay in a makeshift health clinic, bright-eyed and open-mouthed, flies resting on her lips. Her chest barely moved. Beads of feverish sweat dripped down her forehead as medical workers rushed around her, attaching an IV.
It was the last minute to save her life, said Bethsabee Djoman Elidje, the women’s health manager who led the clinic’s effort, as the heart monitor beeped rapidly. The girl had an infection after a sexual assault, Elidje said, and was in shock, untreated, for days.
Her family said the 14-year-old was raped by Russian fighters who stormed their tent in Mali two weeks earlier. The Russians were members of the Africa Corps, a new military unit under the Russian defense ministry that replaced the Wagner mercenary group six months ago.
Men, women and children have been sexually assaulted by all sides during Mali’s decade-long conflict, the UN and aid workers say, with reports of gang rape and sexual slavery. But the real toll is hidden by a veil of shame that makes it difficult for women in conservative, patriarchal societies to seek help.
The silence that nearly killed the 14-year-old is also affecting efforts to hold the perpetrators accountable.
The AP learned of the alleged rape and four other alleged cases of sexual violence attributed to Africa Corps fighters, commonly described by Malians as “white men,” while interviewing dozens of refugees at the border about other abuses such as beheadings and abductions.
Other Malian fighters have been accused of sexual assault. The head of a women’s health clinic in the Mopti area told the AP he had treated 28 women in the past six months who said they had been assaulted by militants from the al-Qaida-affiliated JNIM, Mali’s most powerful armed group.
The silence among the Malian refugees was striking.
In eastern Congo, which for decades has faced violence from dozens of armed groups, “we didn’t have to look for people,” said Mirjam Molenaar, head of the border medical team for Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, who was stationed there last year. Women “came in great numbers.”
It’s different here, she said: “People go through these things and live with them, and that shows up in post-traumatic stress.”
Gaping after an attack
The 14-year-old girl’s aunt said Africa Corps fighters marched everyone out at gunpoint. The family could not understand what they wanted. The men made them watch as they tied up the girl’s uncle and cut off his head.
Two of the men then took the 14-year-old into the tent as she tried to defend herself and raped her. The family waited outside, unable to move.
“We were so scared we couldn’t even scream,” the aunt recalled, as her mother wept quietly by her side. She, like other women, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, and the AP does not name rape victims unless they agree to be named.
The girl appeared over half an hour later, looking terrified. Then she saw her uncle’s body and screamed. She passed out. When he woke up, he had the eyes of someone “who was no longer there,” the aunt said.
The next morning, JNIM militants came and ordered the family to leave. They got on a donkey cart and started for the border. At any sound, they hid in the bushes, holding their breath.
The girl’s condition deteriorated during the three-day journey. When they reached Mauritania, it collapsed.
AP found her lying on the ground in a local family’s yard. Her family said they did not take her to a clinic because they had no money.
“If you don’t have anything, how can you get someone to the doctor?” said the girl’s grandmother between sobs. AP took the family to a free clinic run by MSF. A doctor said the girl had signs of being raped.
The clinic has only been open for a month and has seen three survivors of sexual violence, manager Elidje said.
“We are convinced there are many cases like this,” she said. “But so far, very few patients come to seek treatment because it’s still a taboo subject here. It really takes time and patience for these women to open up and trust someone so they can get care. They only come when things have already gotten complicated, like the case we saw today.”
As Elidje tried to save the girl’s life, she asked the family to describe the incident. She did not speak Arabic and asked the local nurse to find out how many men had committed the attack. But the nurse was too ashamed to ask.
The scratch marks are part of the story she couldn’t tell
Thousands of new Malian refugees, mostly women and children, have settled just inside Mauritania in recent weeks in shelters made of fabric and branches. The nearest refugee camp is full, complicating efforts to treat and report sexual assaults.
Two newly arrived women discreetly pulled the AP reporters aside, adjusting their scarves over their faces. They said they arrived a week ago after armed white men came to their village.
“They took everything from us. They burned our houses. They killed our husbands,” said one. “But that’s not all they did. They tried to rape us.”
The men entered the house where she was alone and stripped her, she said, adding that she defended herself “by the grace of Allah”.
As he spoke, the second woman began to cry and tremble. He had scratch marks on his neck. She was unable to tell her story.
“We’re still horrified by what we’ve been through,” she said.
Separately, a third woman said what white men did to her in Mali last month when she was alone at home “is between God and me”.
A fourth said she saw several armed white men drag her 18-year-old daughter into their home. She ran away and never saw her daughter again.
The women refused the suggestion to talk to aid workers, some of whom are local. They said they weren’t ready to talk about it with anyone else.
Russia’s Defense Ministry did not respond to questions, but an intelligence agency that the US State Department called part of the “Kremlin’s disinformation campaign” called the AP’s investigation into Africa Corps’ fake news.
Wagner has a legacy of sexual abuse
Allegations of rape and other sexual assault had already occurred before Wagner turned himself into Africa Corps.
One refugee told the AP she witnessed a mass rape in her village in March 2024.
“The Wagner group burned seven men alive in front of us with gasoline.” she said. They then rounded up the women and raped them, she said, including her 70-year-old mother.
“After my mother was raped, she couldn’t bear to live,” she said. Her mother died a month later.
In the worst case of sexual assault involving Russian fighters in Africa, the UN, in a 2023 report, said at least 58 women and girls were raped or sexually assaulted in an attack on the village of Moura by Malian troops and others who witnesses described as “armed white men”.
In response, Mali’s government expelled the UN peacekeeping mission. Since then, collecting accurate data on the ground about conflict-related sexual violence has become almost impossible.
The AP interviewed five of the women from Moura, who are now staying in a displacement camp. They said they were blindfolded and raped for hours by several men.
Three of the women said they had not talked about it with anyone other than aid workers. The other two dared to tell their husbands months later.
“I kept quiet with my family for fear of being rejected or looked at differently. It’s shameful,” said one.
The 14-year-old whose family fled to Mauritania is recovering. She said she had no recollection of the attack. Her family and MSF said she was talking to a psychiatrist – one of six working in the country.
Aid workers worry about others who never say anything.
“It seems that the conflict over the years is getting worse and worse. There is less regard for human life, be it men, women or children,” said Molenaar of MSF, breaking down in tears. “It’s a battle.”
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