A UN investigation has found “firm indications” of the involvement of the Army and mercenaries in a massacre in Moura
May 13. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Military Junta that governs Mali has rejected the recent UN report that points to the responsibility of the Army and foreign mercenaries in the killing of more than 500 people in the town of Moura in March 2022 and has announced the opening of an investigation into espionage against the UN mission for obtaining satellite images without authorization.
“The Transitional Government vehemently denounces this biased report, based on a fictitious narrative and which does not comply with established international standards,” the Military Junta said in a statement in which it defended the “successful airborne operation of our brave Armed Forces “.
The military authorities have also stressed that two investigations have been opened, one military and the other civilian, in response to allegations of Human Rights violations.
To these two will be added a third investigation against the commission that has prepared the UN report for espionage, since “at no time did MINUSMA or the High Commissioner for Human Rights send a request for authorization to take images of Moura using satellites” for what they suppose a “maneuver against the national security of Mali, according to the Military Junta. MINUSMA is the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.
This investigation will be directed against the UN investigation mission and against “its accomplices” for “espionage and attack against the external security of the State”, crimes defined in the Malian Penal Code (articles 33 and 35), as well as “military conspiracy “, a crime included in the Code of Military Justice (article 130).
Last Friday, May 12, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, presented a report that includes “firm indications” that more than 500 people were massacred by the Malian Army and “foreign military personnel”. in March 2022 in the city of Moura, located in the Mopti region (center), in what Bamako described as an offensive against terrorism.
PARTICIPATION OF THE WAGNER GROUP
Most of the victims were summarily executed during the Army operation, in which mercenaries from the Wagner Group, owned by the Russian oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, reportedly participated.
The operation, which according to the military authorities targeted the Macina Front, linked to the branch of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda in the country, was launched on March 27, 2022, when a military helicopter flew over Moura before opening fire on the population. After that, dozens of soldiers arrived at the scene in another four helicopters and surrounded those present in the center of the village, shooting at those who tried to escape.
Faced with this situation, several members of the terrorist group present at the scene opened fire on the military, which led to combat that resulted in the death of about 20 civilians and twelve presumed members of the Macina Front. Over the next four days, around 500 people were executed by the Malian Army, with 238 victims already identified.
Witnesses called by the fact-finding mission have recounted that they saw “armed white men” collaborating with the Malian Armed Forces and even supervising the operations, in which soldiers went house to house looking for suspected terrorists and executing people with beards, those who wore pants that did not reach the knee, who had marks on their foreheads that could indicate prolonged prayers or fear.
In this line, they have affirmed that a group of men was transferred to an area to the southeast of the village, where they were executed with shots to the head, back or chest, after which the corpses were thrown into a pit. Those who resisted or tried to flee were likewise killed by the military and “armed white men” and their bodies were likewise thrown into the common grave.
On the other hand, the fact-finding mission has determined that at least 58 women and girls were raped or subjected to other forms of sexual violence, including a case in which the military took bunk beds from a house to a garden to rape several women in turn. women who were forced into beds.
In addition, dozens of people were arrested during the operation, some of whom were subjected to torture and ill-treatment during interrogations in Moura, Sévaré and the capital, Bamako. One of the victims has detailed that both she and other detainees were punched, slapped and kicked in the head while the soldiers branded them jihadists and accused them of killing their own brothers and destroying their country.
The Malian Army indicated in early April 2022 that its forces had “neutralized” more than 200 fighters from “armed terrorist groups” in Moura between March 23 and 31. It also indicated that another 51 people had been detained, while “significant amounts of weapons and ammunition” had been recovered, according to the statement from the Armed Forces.
Mali and the rest of the countries of the Sahel have experienced an upsurge in violence in recent years, both by groups linked to the branches of the terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and the Islamic State that operate in the region, as well as by inter-community groups. In addition, abuses by security forces have helped these groups to swell their ranks.
