Mali: HRW accuse des paramilitaires russes d'avoir tué neuf civils dont des enfants
Human Rights Watch (HRW), describing it as a "massacre", accused Russian paramilitaries from the Africa Corps, accompanied by Malian soldiers, of killing nine civilians, including four children, during an anti-jihadist operation in July in central Mali.
In a statement, the human rights organization explains that the jihadists of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM, linked to Al-Qaeda) have controlled the village of Bombori, in the Mopti region (central), since 2017, and have a base one kilometer away.
On July 10, "more than 100 fighters from the Africa Corps," a Russian paramilitary organization, and "several Malian soldiers" entered the village at dawn in search of JNIM fighters, who "had left the village the day before," according to HRW.
"They broke into houses in the Fulani quarter, dragged people out of the dwellings and gathered at least 80 men and boys under a tree," the NGO said.
The Fulani are an ethnic group regularly targeted in the Sahel, accused of feeding the ranks of jihadist groups that are undermining the region.
"There, the fighters beat the men and boys, interrogated them about alleged links to Islamist armed groups and threatened to kill them if they withheld information," HRW continued.
"They shot dead six civilians who tried to flee and arrested and executed three others, one of whom they beheaded," the NGO detailed. His head was "displayed in the middle of the village" and "the other two had their throats slit and were tied up, with their hands behind their backs," a 40-year-old man told the NGO.
To document this "massacre", HRW says it conducted remote interviews with 13 people, including four witnesses to the attack and nine members of civil society and community leaders, between July 19 and 30.
"When the Africa Corps left Bombori around 2:00 PM (on July 10), residents recovered the bodies of nine people, including five men aged 19 to 34 and four children aged 6 to 17," HRW reports.
A 38-year-old man told the NGO that he found "the bodies of two children, both around six years old, shot dead next to a burned-down house."
According to Ilaria Allegrozzi, a Sahel researcher at HRW quoted in the press release, "the Bombori massacre is emblematic of the atrocities committed in Mali".
"The villagers were caught in the crossfire between an Islamist armed group and the government with its Russian allies, with neither side respecting international law," she lamented.
Mali is plagued by violence from jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which have killed thousands of people across large parts of its territory for more than a decade.
Led by a junta that came to power after two coups in 2020 and 2021, the country has turned its back on its Western partners and moved closer to Russia, whose Africa Corps paramilitaries are helping it in its anti-jihadist fight.
Human Rights Watch says it sent letters on August 4 and 5 to the Russian Defense Minister and to General Assimi Goïta, head of the junta and Defense Minister of Mali, but says it has received "no response to date".
AFP
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