A French soldier from the Barkhane force, in Mali on May 19, 2017. -

Christophe Petit Tesson / AP / SIPA

After a French airstrike in central Mali that claimed the lives of at least twenty people, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for a "rapid and impartial" investigation on Thursday.

This strike killed about twenty inhabitants during a wedding in the village of Bount on January 3, according to villagers and a Fulani association.

But the French and Malian authorities insist that the French fighter planes targeted and eliminated dozens of jihadists and that there were no marriages, women or children.

Bounti residents interviewed

The "serious allegations that civilians were killed in air strikes must be promptly investigated to determine the legality of the strikes under the laws of war," said Jonathan Pedneault, researcher with the crisis and conflict division at HRW, quoted in a statement.

The NGO specifies that it spoke with three residents of Bounti, who each indicated that a marriage had taken place, and that "the men had met separately from the women and children due to segregation measures between the men. and women imposed by armed Islamist groups active in the region ”.

"They explained that the wedding had been planned over a month before and that people had come from other towns and villages to attend," the NGO said, adding that "a sheep had been slaughtered and prepared in the village and the women were about to deliver the meal when the attack took place ”.

An investigation opened by the UN Mission

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Malian Association for Human Rights (AMDH) have already called for an independent investigation.

The coordinator in Mali of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), Amy Martin, also considered "important that all light be shed on this event".

An investigation has already been opened by the UN Mission in Mali, Minusma.

This strike took place as part of an anti-jihadist operation carried out since early January in central Mali by France, the Malian army and the Joint Force of the regional organization G5 Sahel (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad).

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