GIRLS and women fleeing Mali have described sexual violence by a Russian military unit and other armed groups, interviews with a news agency have revealed.

The Associated Press learned of the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl and four other alleged cases blamed on Africa Corps fighters — often referred to by Malians as “the white men” — while interviewing dozens of refugees at the border.

The girl was found critically ill in a makeshift clinic, suffering from an untreated infection following a sexual assault.

Her family said Russian fighters had burst into their tent, forced everyone outside at gunpoint, beheaded the girl’s uncle and raped her inside.

“We were so scared that we were not even able to scream anymore,” her aunt said.

The family fled the next day after al-Qaida-affiliated JNIM militants ordered them to leave, travelling for three days before reaching Mauritania, where the girl collapsed.

The head of a women’s health clinic in the Mopti area told the AP it had treated 28 women in the last six months who said they were assaulted by the JNIM.

Thousands of new refugees from Mali, mostly women and children, have settled just inside Mauritania in recent weeks.

Two recently arrived women said they fled a week ago after armed white men came to their village.

“They took everything from us. They burned our houses. They killed our husbands,” one said.

“But that’s not all they did. They tried to rape us.”

Another woman said she watched several armed white men drag her 18-year-old daughter into their house.

She fled and has not seen her daughter again.

Africa Corps, which replaced the Wagner mercenary group six months ago, has denied wrongdoing.

Russia’s Defence Ministry did not respond to questions, while an information agency described the AP’s investigation as “fake news.”

Allegations of sexual violence involving Wagner had already been reported before the transition.

A UN report in 2023 documented at least 58 women and girls raped during an attack on Moura village by Malian troops and others that witnesses described as “armed white men.”

Aid workers are worried about others who never come forward.

“It seems that conflict over the years gets worse and worse and worse,” said Mirjam Molenaar of Doctors Without Borders.

“There is less regard for human life, whether it’s men, women or children.”