Several Western countries accuse the junta in power in Bamako since 2020 of having assigned the services of the Russian security company Wagner, to the controversial actions.
Le Monde with AFP
An operation of Malian soldiers accompanied by “foreign military staff” left at least 50 civilian people in April, out of a total of 96 civilians killed in the second quarter in army operations, announced Wednesday 31 August the United Nations Mission (UN) in the country (Minusma).
On April 19, in Hombori, after the explosion of an improvised explosive device in passing a convoy of the Malian forces, these, accompanied by “foreign military personnel, led a rating operation in the locality During which at least 50 civilians (including a woman and a child) were killed and more than 500 other orders, “said Minusma in her quarterly note on human rights violations.
The Minusma does not provide any details on these foreign fighters. Several Western countries have accused the junta in power since 2020 of having assigned the services of the Russian security company Wagner, whose actions are most controversial. Bamako denies and speaks of the presence of instructors of the Russian army in the name of ancient military cooperation.
other reports showing Malian abuses
The Malian soldiers have completely diverted themselves since 2021 from the former French ally, who has just completed his military withdrawal from Mali after nine years of engagement. The MINUSMA document also gives a favorable version to France on a case of corpses in which Bamako accused Paris of manipulation.
In April, the French army broadcast the images of what it claims to be Russian mercenaries burying bodies near the Gossi base, from where it had just retired. The goal would have been to accuse the French of leaving a mass grave behind them.
The Malian authorities accused in return the French of having made these images mounted “from scratch to accuse [the Malian soldiers] of being the perpetrators of civilians of civilians”. MINUSMA says it has opened its investigation. According to her, the bodies buried in Gossi were transported on the spot on April 20, the day after the Gossi camp is given by the French to the Malians, and “came from Hombori”.
This report is added to others published by the UN or by independent experts commissioned by the UN reporting on the abuses of the Malian army during operations carried out with its “foreign” auxiliaries.