A strike by Operation Barkhane, in the Sahel, on Sunday January 3, against a jihadist group, would have been the cause of civilian casualties. This is refuted by the general staff of the armies.
By, and
What exactly happened on Sunday January 3, around 3 p.m., in the village of Bounti, in central Mali? Has an airstrike carried out by the French army as part of Operation Barkhane turned into a blunder? Since the targeted bombardment, assumed by the military staff, a number of accusations have emerged, in particular concerning possible collateral civilian victims. “Civilians” present that day at Bounti to celebrate a wedding. At this stage, however, the facts are not clearly established.
The versions contradict each other. The hypothesis of information manipulation is mentioned by certain sources. They see it as a possible link with the tense context in which Barkhane’s troops, deployed in the Sahel since 2014, while five soldiers died between December 28, 2020 and January 2, and that the possibility of a The start of the withdrawal gives rise to mixed opinions.
While Barkhane strikes regularly take place in the region – located in the so-called “three borders” area, between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – the controversy seems began on January 4 with a post on Facebook from an important Peul association, Jeunesse Tabital Pulaaku, located in Bamako, the Malian capital. Published at 2:38 pm, this post reports an “air strike (having) cost the lives of at least twenty civilians” during a marriage and caused “several serious injuries”. “Several women and children” were said to have been killed during this tragedy.
Testimonies of alleged victims
On Twitter, the first identifiable message evoking the alleged “failures” of Barkhane in the area appeared on January 4 at 10:50 am. Lacunar, it first reports five deaths, then eighteen deaths around 3 pm. That is to say roughly at the same time as the Facebook post of the Peul association, where the latter calls, in passing, for the help of the Malian State and the international community, while calling for “the opening of an investigation” . Elements of information then circulate rapidly within the small circles of initiates of the Sahelian question.
It is the next day, January 5, that these new plots gain momentum. They are repeated in an AFP dispatch published in the middle of the afternoon, informed by testimonies of alleged victims of the bombing contacted by telephone through the association Jeunesse Tabital Pulaaku. Doctors Without Borders (MSF), engaged in the Bounti region, endorsed this information, without however appearing by name in the dispatch.
You have 64.1% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.