Since July 17, a video has been circulating on social media in Mali. It shows a man in Malian military uniform disemboweling a corpse to eat its liver. These images raise serious questions about the practice of cannibalism within the Malian armed forces.
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In this unbearable video, a man in a Malian military uniform, with the FAMA (Malian Armed Forces) insignia clearly visible, disembowels a corpse with a machete and announces in Bambara that he is going to eat its liver. The other men in fatigues who surround him, apparently members of his unit, react by laughing and expressing their desire to share this “meal”. One of them even demands the victim’s heart.
Disemboweled Bodies in Mourdiah
There is no certainty about the location or date of the incident: the landscape suggests the center of the Mali during the rainy season. According to security sources, community sources and human rights organizations contacted by RFI, this video could have been filmed in Sokolo, in the Niono circle, two years ago, in June 2022, or in Mourdiah, near the Mauritanian border, last May.
At this time, the FAMA had repelled an attack by JNIM (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, linked to Al-Qaeda) and exhibited disemboweled and emasculated bodies of jihadists killed in combat. Other sources finally mention the Léré sector, in recent weeks.
Asked by RFI for details on this video, the army did not respond. Such images of cannibalistic acts are unprecedented concerning the Malian army.
Read alsoMali: Victorious response but marred by atrocities by the army in Mourdiah
Background with Dozo hunters
In 2019, a video showing traditional Dozo hunters cutting out the liver of a corpse to offer it to their leader had already shocked Malians. The Dozos, who adorn themselves with amulets and claim magical powers, regularly serve as auxiliaries to the regular army in operations carried out in the center of the country.
Similar cases
A Malian security source assures that he is not surprised by these images: “several similar cases have been reported to the hierarchy recently”explains this source, which puts these atrocities down to the harshness of the terrain and its consequences on the soldiers’ psyche.