Tuareg associations in Mali and Burkina Faso have filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court against their nations' armies and the Russian paramilitary group, Africa Corps.

Several Tuareg community organisations filed a complaint with the office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on Sunday, according to RFI's correspondent.

The complaint targets the Malian Armed Forces (FAMA), the Burkinabe Forces, and Russian mercenaries from the Africa Corps, which recently replaced the Wagner group in Africa.

The charities Imouhagh International, Kel Akal, Diaspora of the United States, and the Azawad Solidarity Association accuse them of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The groups say the crimes against humanity and war crimes reported to the prosecutor of the ICC have been committed in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2022.

They include murders, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, looting, and torture, including the discovery in April in Kwala, Mali, of 60 bodies of civilians, visibly tortured, according to these organisations.

They point to the use of mercenaries from Africa Corps – the former Wagner – in the repressive operations carried out by the armies of both countries.

The ICC had already opened an investigation into crimes committed in Mali, following the occupation of Timbuktu in 2012, at the time at the government's own request.

But the departure of French and UN forces - in 2022 and 2024 - has made the court's operations on the ground very difficult.

To investigate the crimes committed in Burkina Faso, the prosecutor would need to secure approval from the ICC judges, unless the Burkinabe government decides to refer the case itself.

With this complaint lodged in The Hague, the four plaintiff organisations say they intend to make "a major political and legal statement" to enable Sahelian victims to obtain "recognition, justice and reparation."