Mali: Minusma investigates deaths during demonstrations and during coup

Malian soldiers in the Kati camp, August 19, 2020 (illustration image) ANNIE RISEMBERG / AFP

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3 min

Questions are mounting on the political transition, on the events of recent weeks, and on the circumstances in which Malians have been killed.

Whether before the coup, during the repression of demonstrations by the regime then in place, but also during the putsch, on August 18.

The human rights division of Minusma, the UN mission in the country, has launched two investigations to try to clear up the questions.

These investigations are not yet completed but RFI has had access to a first part of the conclusions.

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Three dead in Kayes, one in Sikasso, fourteen in Bamako, and more than 150 injured.

This is the record of the repression of the various

which preceded the fall of ex-president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, according to cross-checks made by investigators from Minusma, the UN force in the country.

They were victims of various Malian security forces: police, gendarmerie and Forsat, the anti-terrorist force, the use of which UN investigators question.

A second investigation concerns this time the victims of

 : while the soldiers of the CNSP congratulated themselves on having succeeded in a coup " 

 ", UN investigators count fifteen wounded and four dead.

Three were killed in front of the Budget Ministry, one at the home of Karim Keïta, the son of ousted President IBK and former deputy in charge of the Defense Commission of the Malian National Assembly.

These are elements of the National Guard, deployed by the junta, who allegedly shot at them.

“ 

 ” slips an investigator, who is still awaiting explanations from the junta.

Suspicious releases

Minusma also wishes to hear from the CNSP on the release of 17 detainees from the Bamako remand center on the day of the coup.

Among them, " 

 ": destruction of evidence, concealment of weapons ... Two of these fifteen detainees released extra-judicially are once again behind bars.

One of them would have surrendered voluntarily, the other was taken back by the gendarmerie.

Eight other people, soldiers, were also reportedly released.

They were detained at Camp 1 of the Bamako gendarmerie.

They had been arrested “ 

” and were under arrest for attempted coup d'état.

Were these releases knowingly organized by the junta, or did officers take advantage of the confusion of the day to carry out these releases on their own?

Minusma investigators are still awaiting clarification, but ensure that the CNSP " 

" in the ongoing investigations with " 

"

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