According to Amnesty International: "TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT Many detainees - including a child - told Amnesty International that they had been tortured or subjected to other cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment at the time of their arrest and transfer to Bamako. Some of them showed marks and scars – including on their backs and chests – to Amnesty International’s delegates. Several detainees told Amnesty International’s delegates that they had been beaten by Malian security forces several times during and after their arrests. [...] A 35 year-old Arab merchant arrested in Gao, end of February 2013, by AFISMA soldiers from Niger told Amnesty International that two French soldiers visited him on the second day of his detention, and told him that they would hand him over to the Malian forces. The following day he was picked up by Malian gendarmes who beat him up until he fainted." ^[+]