In Mali, military justice announced Wednesday, April 6 the opening of investigations into the recent events of Moura (center), where testimonies report the mass execution of civilians by Malian soldiers and foreign fighters.
Following "allegations of presumed abuses committed against civilians (...), investigations were opened by the national gendarmerie on instructions from the Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs to carry out in-depth investigations in order to do all the light on these allegations", wrote in a press release the prosecutor at the military court of Mopti, a large city near Moura.
The prosecutor will go "very soon" on the spot with investigators and a medical examiner, the press release adds.
Opposite versions
The military-dominated authorities who came to power by force in 2020 were under pressure from many quarters to open an independent investigation into the events that took place between March 27 and 31 in Moura, in a region which is one of the main centers Sahelian violence.
The Malian army and witnesses interviewed by the press or the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) offer diametrically opposed versions.
The army says it "neutralized" 203 jihadists during a major operation.
The witnesses quoted report a mass of summary executions of civilians, rapes and acts of looting committed by Malian soldiers and foreign fighters presumed to be Russians.
HRW says 300 civilians, some suspected of being jihadists, have been executed, and speaks of the "worst episode of atrocities" committed since the unleashing of violence in Mali in 2012.
On Wednesday, the UN independent expert on human rights in Mali, Alioune Tine, mixed his voice with those of France, the United States, the European Union and the Malian Commission for human rights to request an investigation.
The UN is investigating
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told the press in New York that the United Nations had opened an investigation and that experts from the UN Mission in Mali (Minusma) were trying to get to the site "as quickly as possible. possible".
Such a trip is subject to the goodwill of the Malian authorities.
The events of Moura are set against the backdrop of the ongoing reconfiguration since the junta turned away from France and its European allies, and turned towards Russia to regain ground lost to the jihadists since 2012.
With AFP
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