the army and “foreign” fighters would have executed 500 people during an anti-jihadist operation in 2022, according to the UN

The United Nations accused the Malian army and combatants “strangers” of having carried out executions during an anti-jihadist operation in the center of the country, in March 2022. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights “has reasonable grounds to believe” that at least 500 people, including twenty women and seven children, were killed in Moura “after the area has been completely mastered”according to a report made public on Friday, May 12.

This document was drawn up from an investigation by the human rights division of the blue helmets mission deployed since 2013 in Mali (Minusma). The NGO Human Rights Watch had accused the army and Russian mercenaries of having killed civilians in Moura, as early as 2022. The events in this locality have, however, been the subject of contradictory versions for a year.

The shadow of Russia and Wagner

The High Commission claims to have also “reasonable grounds to believe that 58 women and girls were victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence”. It reports acts of torture on arrested persons. These acts could constitute war crimes and, “depending on the circumstances”crimes against humanity, underlines the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The report does not explicitly identify the “strangers” who took part in these abuses. But he recalls the official Malian declarations on the participation “instructors” fighting against the jihadists, and the presence in Mali of militiamen from the Russian Wagner group. The UN reports testimonies collected by its investigators and describing these foreigners as white men in fatigues, speaking a language “unknown”.