As the French withdraw from Mali, Russian mercenaries are taking their place – with deadly consequences
The Russian mercenary slowly went through the group of hundreds of prisoners with a stick. If a man’s beard was too long or his clothes too Islamic, he got a tap on the head. “He is a jihadist. Kill him,” the man said in Russian.
When enough people were selected, they were marched to a nearby building and shot. There was nowhere to hide in the arid scrub around Moura village, in central Mali. The white men had come in on helicopters with government soldiers and translators. If locals tried to run, they would be gunned down in seconds.
“They didn’t even take the time to tie their hands or blindfold them. They just executed them. Some even while they were still walking. One bullet and that was it,” said Muhammad, a 29-year-old driver and one of the prisoners who survived and witnessed the entire thing.
