In the spotlight: a new blow for the Malian authorities

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By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

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While President IBK is more than ever the target of the M5-MFP opposition movement which is demanding his resignation, now several senior officials of the army and intelligence services find themselves in the hot seat ... These high-ranking officers are accused by UN experts of having compromised the implementation of the Algiers peace agreement, despite urgent calls from the international community to resolve the crisis, and of having indirectly caused massacres of civilians . These accusations emanate from a report submitted to the Security Council on August 7, which leaked to the press.

Le Monde Afrique in  particular was able to obtain a copy. Le Monde Afrique, which cites the case of General Kéba Sangaré, chief of staff of the army and commander of the headquarters of the joint forces for operations in the central region, since relieved of his duties. According to the UN report, this senior officer committed a serious fault which led to the massacre of the village of Ogossagou in the center of the country. 35 civilians murdered and 19 still missing ... It was February 14th.

Villagers delivered to a fatal fate?

"  " More than ten hours before the murders, we can read in the report quoted by Le Monde Afrique, General Kéba Sangaré was called several times and received messages informing him of the threat, the preparation and the start of the massacre in the village of Ogossagou ". However, while he "had the decision-making power and the ultimate authority to order the army unit stationed in the village not to leave the place on February 13, 2020 before the arrival of the replacement unit ", this one is well and truly gone. Indeed, specifies Le Monde Afrique, since the first massacre (in the previous year in this same village), a unit of the Malian Armed Forces had to be stationed there night and day to reassure the villagers. "In fact, the military abandoned the population" on February 13, observes a human rights source in Mopti. Having left at 5 p.m., the soldiers were not relieved until the next morning, around 8 a.m., when it was already too late.  "

What is more, notes Le Monde Afrique , "in  addition to the responsibility of General Sangaré in Ogossagou, the report points to his" dubious decisions "in the deployment of the reconstituted army provided for by the Algiers agreement, signed in 2015 between the Malian State and the rebel groups in the north. In order to help the state return to these areas, the parties had agreed that the battalions should be made up of an equal ratio of former members of the rebellion, the Malian army and pro-government armed groups. This is not the case today, particularly at the level of the chain of command.  "

A biased report?

The Malian daily September 22  denounces for its part "  a biased report full of untruths ": concerning the accusations against General Kéba Sangaré, September 22 deplores that " a valuable officer is singled out, writes- he, concerning the massacres of Ogossagou, through partial and fragmented information, without the necessary cross-checking. (…) Fortunately, this report has not (yet) been adopted by the UN, continues September 22. Tiébilé Dramé, the head of Malian diplomacy, will no doubt know how to dismantle the untruths interspersed in this bulky document.  "

And then for its part, the Malian government says it is "  dissatisfied  " with the development of this document "  without its knowledge  ". This is what the daily L'Indépendant reports . The Malian government, which recalls that it has “  always worked well with the UN group of experts and that it has always been informed, in real time, of the preparation of the various reports. This is why the Malian government, reports the Bamako daily , today says it is "very astonished" that such a document, of great importance, has been drawn up and that it only learns about it. through the media . "

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