Mali: jihadist reprisals in Moura, the Minusma still not authorized to investigate
Minusma has not yet received authorization to conduct its investigation into the Moura tragedy (illustrative image) REUTERS / Adama Diarra
Text by: David Baché
2 mins
The ordeal of the inhabitants of Moura continues.
At the end of March, a vast anti-terrorist operation was carried out in this village near Djenné, in central Mali, by the Malian army.
Official report: 203 terrorists killed, 51 arrested.
But many testimonies report mass executions of civilians and unarmed jihadists by Malian soldiers and the Russian fighters who support them.
Malian military justice has announced the opening of an investigation.
The Minusma would also like to go there, but the Malian transitional authorities do not allow it.
In the meantime, it is the Katiba Macina jihadists who have returned to Moura for punitive expeditions.
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The jihadists returned several times to Moura.
Just after the end of the military operation, and even in the very last days, after
the visit of a ministerial delegation
to the village last weekend.
Visit whose images, featuring some residents posing alongside the military, were widely distributed.
According to numerous local, humanitarian and security sources, at least two villagers from Moura have since been kidnapped, accused by the Katiba Macina jihadists of having helped or supported the Malian soldiers.
The fate that could be reserved for them obviously raises a lot of concerns.
►
To read also: Moura: the Malian army delivers its details
The United Nations Mission in the country is investigating these latest events, as it is investigating the numerous accusations of abuses brought against the Malian army and its Russian auxiliaries, during the operation carried out at the end of March in the village.
But the trip to Moura of UN investigators
seems compromised to say the least
.
“
The teams prepositioned in Mopti have left,” explains a UN source.
There were about ten investigators, four helicopters and a lot of soldiers to secure them
”, specifies this source, who specifies: “
the Malian authorities do not tell us no, but they do not answer.
We weren't going to make the teams wait indefinitely.
»
Officially, the applications for authorization are therefore still under consideration.
“
It is their strategy,
analyzes a UN executive
, to prevent us from going there to challenge the report.
But we can also work remotely
, ”says this source, who explains that the witness hearings and the cross-checking work began a long time ago.
Malian military justice, which is conducting its own investigation, has promised to make its findings public.
►
To listen: What happened in Moura in Mali?
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