Mali: nearly 600 civilians were killed in 2021

In the last six months of the last six months last year, a 16% increase in the number of people killed in the first six months.

Le Monde with AFP

Nearly 600 civilians were killed in Mali in 2021 in violence attributed mainly to jihadist groups, but also to self-defense militia and the armed forces, indicated Thursday, March 24 a document from the UN mission in the Country (Minusma).

Diving in the turmoil since 2012, Mali has known in the last six months of 2021 a 16% increase in the number of people killed in relation to the first six months, affirms a note from the Human Rights Division of the Minusma specifically on the second half of the past year.

Precisely, 318 people found death in the violence in the second half, according to the document. The figure was 266 in the first half, he recalls. The kidnappings decreased from 425 to 343 from one semester to the next.

On the 584 civilians killed in 2021, the Minusma imputes the death of more than half of them (331) to the radical Islamist groups, that of 122 others to the groups proclaimed of Community self-defense, according to a counting. AFP from three different reports of MINUSMA for 2021.

The center, “epicenter of violence”

Seventy-seven civilians were killed during operations of the Malian security forces, according to this count, including a number of victims of summary or arbitrary executions. “The Malian Armed Forces arbitrarily executed at least seven civilians [six men and an 8-year-old boy] and killed another man by bullets” October 25 in the N’Dola region (center), specifies the document on the Second semester.

The Malian authorities categorically refute accusations of abuses. The Minusma imputes to the regional and international forces, including the French forces, the death of 50 people in 2021, of which 5 in the second half. French and African forces operate in Mali.

The center of the country “remained the epicenter of violence,” says MINUSMA. More than two-thirds of the total human rights violations have been enumerated, particularly in the region of Ségou and the Niono Circle.

“whole sections of the territory of the Niono circle are under the control of the JNIM”, the support group for Islam and the Muslims (GSIM, or JNIM in Arabic), affiliated with Al-Qaida, says MINUSMA . The GSIM “and other similar groups have multiplied attacks on civilians and the Malian forces as well as Minusma in the second half, mentions the UN organization.

The Dogon Militia Dan Nan Ambassagou

Mali is also in the grip of groups of groups affiliated with the Islamic State Organization. These groups have “conducted indiscriminate attacks on civilians in several localities in the center and south of the country, with the aim of sowing terror and sometimes force populations to leave,” says Minusma. “They tackled civilians in retaliation for military operations conducted by the Malian Armed Forces and the International Forces and / or for their assumed collaboration with the latter”, does it sign.

They imposed their rules like the beard port for men, that of the full veil for women as well as forced and early weddings of girls in several localities. They burned fields and harvests in villages refusing to submit.

As for the self-defense groups, including the Dogon Militia Dan Nan Ambassagou, “in loss of influence” in the center, they “have attacked the civilians suspected of being connivated” with the GSIM and the other groups radicals. Dan Nan Ambassagou has led several retaliation attacks against the villages that have established non-aggression pacts with jihadists, according to MINUSMA.

/Media reports.