KILLINGS IN MALI UNDERSCORE RUSSIA’S ‘MALIGN ACTIVITY’ BEYOND UKRAINE, UK AMBASSADOR

Fri 08 April 2022:

The UK deputy representative to the UN, James Kariuki, has said reports of the massacre in the Malian town of Moura underline the extent of “Russia’s malign activity around the world, beyond Ukraine”.

“We know that, as of early 2022, around 1,000 Russian mercenary personnel have been stationed across Mali. Just as the presence of Russian mercenaries drove an increase in human rights violations and abuses in the Central African Republic last year, we fear we are now seeing the same in Mali,” Kariuki told the UN’s Security Council.

MALI TROOPS, SUSPECTED RUSSIAN MERCENARIES KILL HUNDREDS OF CIVILIANS: HRW

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation revealed about 300 civilians and suspected members of armed groups were allegedly executed in Moura during an operation by Malian forces and foreign fighters. HRW says several sources identified the foreign fighters as Russians.

Russian mercenaries have reportedly been deployed to Africa as part of the Wagner Group, a paramilitary unit that was also allegedly aiding Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Russia has consistently denied the group’s connection to the state.

The alleged massacre, described in a Tuesday statement by HRW as “the worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s decade-long conflict”, happened in the central Malian town of Moura during a military operation that started on March 27.

“Abuses by armed Islamist groups is no justification at all for the military’s deliberate slaughter of people in custody,” said Corinne Dufka, HRW’s Sahel director.

“The Malian government is responsible for this atrocity, the worst in Mali in a decade, whether carried about by Malian forces or associated foreign soldiers,” she added.

Mass killing is a breach of international law that prohibits abuses against captured combatants and detained civilians, according to Article 3 of the Geneva Convention.

Residents told HRW that since January many armed foreigners, believed to be Russians, were taking part in military operations in and around the central Malian towns of Sofara, Ségou, Mopti, Diabaly, and Belidanédji among others.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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