According to Human Rights Watch: "Human Rights Watch interviewed 34 men who had been detained by the security forces in the course of operations in northern and central Mali from December 2014 to late February 2015. The majority were ethnic Peuhl detained in central Mali in reaction to recent attacks there. The detainees described numerous incidents of mistreatment including physical and psychological abuse – notably death threats, torture, and denial of food, water, and medical care. The most frequent and serious abuse was meted out by army soldiers, and occurred in the first few days after they were detained. Most detainees said the abuse stopped after they were handed over to gendarmes. [...] A 31-year-old Peuhl herder told Human Rights Watch in a hospital that in late 2014, he and about 30 other Peuhl men accused of supporting Islamist rebels were taken from a village west of Douentza, and ordered by the National Guard to lie down on top of one another in the back of two pickup trucks. His legs had been severely injured and burned from the weight of the other detainees and a metal chain on which he had been ordered to lie. The national guardsmen beat him and the others for several hours in a base in Mondoro." ^[+]