Mali: a civilian killed by soldiers of Operation Barkhane

A Barkhane force helicopter in Gao (illustrative image).

AFP Photos / Michele Cattani

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

A civilian was killed and two wounded Tuesday by French soldiers from Barkhane in an incident involving a bus, about fifty kilometers from Gao.

The French staff says the vehicle was traveling very fast and heading towards a military convoy and warning shots ricocheted.

A version denied by the transport company that owns the bus.

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With our correspondent in Bamako,

The bus was carrying 45 passengers.

He left Bamako for the locality of Gao.

About fifty kilometers from the main town in northern Mali, a unit of the Barkhane force, the anti-jihadist military operation carried out in the Sahel and the Sahara by the French army, circulates on a ribbon of asphalt.

According to the French army's version, the bus was heading at high speed in the direction of the military convoy.

Verbal summons, gestures, first warning shot, but the bus does not stop, further details Barkhane.

In the area, the threat of suicide vehicles is high.

The French force recognizes that there was a second warning shot directed towards the ground. 

"The bus was traveling at 40 kilometers per hour"

Abdoulaye Haidara, the CEO of the Nour transport company, which owns the bus, gave him another version of the facts.

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In any case, the two bullets fired finally went through the windshield of the bus and injured three people, one of them seriously.

Evacuated by helicopter to Gao, she died soon after. 

According to the French army, all measures have been taken to establish the circumstances of the event with the support of the Malian gendarmerie.

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