The United Nations has noted accounts of amputations, floggings and public executions, such as the July stoning of a couple that reportedly had an affair. The International Criminal Court has launched a war crimes investigation amid reports that residents have been mutilated and killed for disobeying the Islamists.

"The current human rights situation is linked to long-standing and unresolved issues," and "human rights violations have been committed both in the North and in the area under government control," the Human Rights Council said, citing abuses since January 2012.

"In northern Mali, serious human rights violations have been taking place since January 2012, including summary executions and extrajudicial killings," the council said. It also said:

-- Fighters "allegedly used students as human shields to force military forces to surrender and later on allegedly executed 94 of the 153 captured and disarmed soldiers."

-- Several Tuareg soldiers, including nine in Timbuktu, were also reportedly victims of reprisals by members of the Malian army in the North.

-- Among civilian deaths were people who tried to resist the looting of humanitarian warehouses by armed groups.

-- Ten amputation cases by extremists were reported in the north, including the case of a 30-year-old man whose right hand was cut off with a kitchen knife for allegedly stealing cattle following a summary trial set up by a militia.

-- Women have been assaulted, harassed and abused after being accused of being improperly veiled or dressed, or for riding on a motorbike. In April, six armed men allegedly belonging to the Ansar Dine extremist group raped a woman "for not wearing her veil in her own home."

-- Rapes of women and girls have been done "at times in front of family members and often apparently carried out on an ethnic basis."

-- Girls as young as 12 or 13 are reported to have been forcibly married to members of militias.

-- Child soldiers who were recruited were sometimes as young as 10.