Chief of the Mali army begins looking into a video purporting to show military “cannibalism”

The army chief stated in a statement on Wednesday that the video, which shows a guy in a Malian military uniform chopping into a corpse in front of his peers, is the subject of an inquiry by Mali’s armed forces. He likened the incident to a “rare atrocity” similar to cannibalism.

It further stated that the act was incompatible with the military values of the nation of Sahel, West Africa.

Human rights organizations and the UN have consistently charged Malian soldiers with grave violations, such as beheadings and torture, against people thought to be working with jihadist organizations that have been conducting an insurgency in the Sahel since 2012. The army has never acknowledged any misconduct.

Tuesday saw the disturbing video go viral on X, but it has now been taken down for breaking the platform’s policies. It featured a man in uniform with the Mali Armed Forces (FAMA) chopping open a dead body’s guts with a machete.

According to comments and media reports on the film, the man states he is going to eat the victim’s liver while speaking in the indigenous Malian Bambara language. As he slices through the corpse, a group of men in fatigues around him giggle.

Before the video was removed off social media, Reuters failed to independently confirm its content, which incited fury and disgust among viewers.

“Expert services have been called upon to verify the legitimacy of the footage and identify the person,” the July 16 army statement that was uploaded on X on Wednesday stated.

The jihadist groups that first emerged in Mali’s dry north more than ten years ago and have subsequently expanded into neighboring and coastal countries, some of which have ties to al Qaeda and the Islamic State, have proven difficult for the country’s army to subdue.

As foreign-backed militaries reacted against terrorists who had taken over land, hundreds of thousands of people had died and millions had been displaced.

Since 2020, there have been two military coups in Mali, two in neighboring Burkina Faso, and one in Niger as a result of the authorities’ failure to restore security.

The juntas in all three nations have severed their connections with long-standing Western friends in favor of Russian military assistance.