Survivors claim that Putin's private army photographed stripped-naked sexual assault victims.

 

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Nigeria's Abuja Mercenaries from Putin's private army, according to survivors of an armed raid, sexually assaulted 12 women and girls, at least one of whom was as young as 15, and humiliated them by using smartphones to record their naked bodies after the attack.

Although the paramilitaries used by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close supporter of President Putin and a key player in the invasion of Ukraine, are implicated in human rights violations and massacres, the Wagner Group soldiers are supposed to be in Mali in an advise capacity.

One of the victims claimed to have passed out as a result of a Russian paramilitary shooting her in the head after she refused to take off her clothes, according to The Daily Beast. When she came to, she discovered that she and about five other women were both undressed and lying on the ground.

The 23-year-old Maryam, whose real name The Daily Beast has chosen not to publish, claimed that "we were surrounded by white soldiers." Some of them were snapping pictures of us with their phones.

According to witnesses, the raid on September 4 in the village of Nia Oura in the central Mopti area of Mali started about 8 AM. Diarra, 30, tells The Daily Beast that as he was preparing to depart for his farm, Russian mercenaries assaulted his complex and started firing in the air. They were joined by troops from the Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) and hunters from the ancient Dozo fraternity.

The Daily Beast is using the first name of Diarra and the other two witnesses to protect them from potential retaliation. "As they were shooting, they were calling us traitors and claiming that we were working with terrorists to attack them," said Diarra. They consistently vowed to deal with us.

Diarra claims that after about 30 minutes of intermittent shooting, the paramilitarieswho belonged to the notorious Wagner Group—ordered the arrest of the men in the compound, leaving only the women and kids behind.

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Diarra, who was able to flee with two other men to a nearby bush after hearing the Russians order their arrest, claimed that the white soldiers had instructed FAMA and the Dozo hunters to transport all of the men to Sofara [a town six miles from Nia Oura, the location of Wagner's main base]. "Leave the women for us," one of the white soldiers shouted.

Diarra and his two neighbors claimed they heard ladies screaming inside the compound as Wagner mercenaries sexually assaulted and mistreated them while they were making their way home after spending more than two hours hiding from the intruders. Before going to the property, the three men waited on the road until they were certain the Russians had left.

Diarra recalled, "We found the women sobbing when we got back." Blood was on some of them's clothing.

According to Diarra, there were about 12 women and girls in the compound. She claimed that all of them had been sexually assaulted by Wagner paramilitaries, who then lined them up and recorded naked images of the victims.

"The women claimed the white soldiers sexually assaulted them after stripping them down, and they used their smartphones to record the women's naked bodies," said Diarra. The women claimed that they were treated cruelly.

Since arriving in Mali late last year as part of a lucrative arrangement with the country's new military junta, Wagner paramilitaries—who have been sent on a number of offensives against Islamist extremists—have been regularly connected to a number of crimes around the unrest-ridden country. Many of the soldiers who served as Wagner's recruits in Africa have subsequently been sent to the illegal conflict in Ukraine, as the Daily Beast first discovered.

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The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), an NGO, reported in August that since the beginning of 2022, close to 500 civilians had perished in incidents involving Malian forces and Wagner. The most heinous incident took place in March in the village of Moura, where over the course of four days, mercenaries from the private military company massacred about 300 men.

Seydou, 37, a different compound raid survivor, revealed to The Daily Beast that he was detained by Dozo hunters who accused him of working for jihadists, blindfolded him, and held him in Wagner's Sofara camp until they were satisfied he had no connections to Islamist militants. He claimed that when he got home, he discovered that the Russians had sexually raped his 15-year-old cousin.

Seydou, who was jailed for five hours, stated, "My cousin informed me two white troops raped her inside her own room and in front of their colleagues. "After that, they took pictures of her body in its natural state."

Another group of ladies were gathered in a compound next to a primary school by Wagner mercenaries who instructed them to undress before taking photographs of them, according to a local trader who saw the occurrence not far from where Seydou and his cousin reside.

According to Boubakar, who observed the incident from the window of his sitting room, which is located across from the complex where it happened, the women who disrobed slowly were assaulted by the white soldiers and had their clothing pulled apart. "Watching it was heartbreaking."

In response to The Daily Beast's request for comments regarding the alleged rape and abuse of women in Nia Oura, neither the Malian government nor Prigozhin provided any. Emails addressed to the Mali government's spokesperson and Concord Management, a business that is primarily owned by Prigozhin, received no response.

The Malian authorities maintain that at least a thousand Russian paramilitaries are stationed there purely as instructors and not in a military capacity. Regarding the crimes committed in Nia Oura, the administration says nothing.

According to the locals, the Wagner Group's misery may never end.

Seydou added, "My cousin has been traumatized for weeks and sobs every day. "I hope she can recover someday,"

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