500 PEOPLE WERE EXECUTED IN A VILLAGE IN 2022 BY MALIAN AND FOREIGN TROOPS- UN REPORT

Fri 12 May 2023:

The U.N. Human Rights Office reported on Friday that during a five-day operation in the village of Moura in central Mali in March 2022, Malian soldiers and unidentified foreign military personnel were believed to have murdered at least 500 people, Reuters reported.

After months of investigation, a U.N. report on the incident was published. According to rights groups, the attack is the biggest atrocity in the ten-year struggle between the army and insurgent groups, which has resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people.

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“These are extremely disturbing findings,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. “Summary executions, rape and torture during armed conflict amount to war crimes and could, depending on the circumstances, amount to crimes against humanity.”

Mali’s military government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. It has previously said that terrorists, not civilians, were killed in Moura.

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The research was based on forensic analysis and satellite photos, as well as interviews with victims and witnesses in the West African nation. According to the United Nations, a fact-finding team was able to gather the names of at least 238 victims.

The report said Malian soldiers and “armed white men” who spoke a language not familiar to local people descended in helicopters and opened fire on fleeing residents. Over five days they rounded up residents, many of whom were shot and thrown in ditches.

Concerns from Western nations have been expressed regarding the activity of Russian private military contractor Wagner Group in Mali, including claims that it was involved in the murder of Moura’s residents.

Mali and Russia have previously argued that the Russian military present are not mercenaries but rather trainers assisting local troops with weaponry purchased from Russia, not mercenaries. Mali’s authorities seized control in a coup in 2021.

The results support the at-the-time reporting by Reuters.

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Conflict in Mali

Mali is overrun with armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL/ISIS that have killed hundreds of people during a decade of violence. French forces intervened in 2013, initially forcing the rebels to retreat, but they have since rebounded and control much of the centre and north of Mali.

Last year, French forces left during a diplomatic dispute with Mali’s military government just as the Wagner Group moved in.

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The Wagner Group has attracted international attention over its prominent role in fighting during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In January, the US designated Wagner a “transnational criminal organisation” responsible for widespread human rights abuses. That same month, UN experts called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Mali by government forces and the Wagner Group.

A month later, Mali expelled the head of the UN peacekeeping mission’s human rights division for his allegedly biased choice of civil society witnesses for UN Security Council briefings on Mali.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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