2023-07-24 13:26:59
AA / Tunis / Salim Boussaïd
The organization Human Rights Watch accused, on Monday, the Malian armed forces and “foreign fighters”, of having summarily executed and of having forcibly disappeared “several dozen civilians in the central region of Mali, since December 2022.
In a report made public on Monday, consulted by Anadolu, HRW accuses the Malian army and its partners “apparently belonging to the Wagner group linked to Russia” of having “destroyed and looted civilian property” and probably “tortured detainees in a military camp”.
HRW has not published figures for the entire period concerned, but referred to correspondence sent to the Malian authorities to find out more regarding these alleged abuses, identified according to testimonies collected from March 1 to May 30.
“Interviewees said that the Malian armed forces had committed abuses during military operations in response to the presence of Islamist armed groups in the villages of Ouenkoro, Séguéla, Sossobé and Thioffol, in the Mopti and Ségou regions,” HRW said in its report.
“During all the operations, with the exception of Thioffol, witnesses reported the involvement of non-French-speaking foreign armed men whom they described as ‘whites’, or ‘Russians’, or ‘Wagners'”, adds the humanitarian organization.
In response to these accusations, the Malian government told HRW, “that it was not aware of any violation of human rights”, but that “the public prosecutor in charge of the Specialized Judicial Unit, on the instructions of the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, opened a judicial investigation for war crimes and crimes once morest humanity once morest X”.
HRW also recalled that in December 2021, “the military government of Mali said that Russian military instructors were in Mali under a bilateral agreement with Russia, but denied the presence of Wagnerian fighters”.
This attitude was confirmed on July 20 by the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, who declared in his response to HRW “that the Malian armed forces “carry out military operations in a completely autonomous manner”, and that no other foreign force or pro-government militia “is involved in operations on the ground”.
The HRW report comes a few weeks following the decision of the UN Security Council to end the UN mission in Mali (Minusma).
According to Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy director for Africa at Human Rights Watch, “the imminent withdrawal of UN peacekeepers makes it more crucial than ever for the Malian authorities to protect civilians and prevent further abuses during military operations”.
Only part of the dispatches, which Anadolu Agency broadcasts to its subscribers via the Internal Broadcasting System (HAS), is broadcast on the AA website, in a summarized manner. Please contact us to subscribe.
1690205604
#HRW #accuses #Malian #army #summary #executions #enforced #disappearances
