At least eight civilians were killed in central Mali, we learned on Sunday from a humanitarian source, from local elected officials, a relative and a northern independence coalition, the Front for the Liberation of Mali. ‘Azawad (FLA), which accuses the Malian army and its Russian allies of Wagner.
A “Hilux brand 4X4 vehicle, in the village of Hampey (center), with Malian civilians was heading towards a refugee camp in Mauritania when Wagner and the Malian army fired. At least eight civilians were killed,” he said. a local elected official told AFP on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“All the occupants of the vehicle are dead. They were buried in a mass grave,” said a relative of one of the victims, contacted by AFP.
A local humanitarian source confirmed “the shooting deaths of eight civilians between the localities of Niono and Nampala”.
The Malian army has not yet reacted. Contacted by AFP, a Defense Ministry official said she did not want to “make a comment”.
In a statement Saturday evening, the Front for the Liberation of Azawad (FLA) – a merger of several predominantly Tuareg groups – accused Wagner’s Malian army and its Russian allies of killing nine civilians on Thursday, including children and women according to him.
The FLA “learned with great emotion of the assassination by the Malian army and Wagner’s mercenaries of nine civilians including children and women on Thursday, between Gouma Coura and Dioura”. The FLA “strictly condemns this umpteenth deliberate criminal act,” the press release added.
For his part, a traditional chief from northern Mali, Abdoul Magid Ag Mohamed Ahmed, said in a separate statement on Saturday that “this act is in no way the work of our FAMa (Malian Armed Forces)”. He called on the Malian authorities to open a judicial investigation in order to “identify, track down and bring to justice the perpetrators of this tragedy”.
Since seizing power in coups in 2020 and 2021 in Mali, the military has broken the old alliance with former colonial power France and then turned militarily and politically towards Russia.
Since 2012, Mali has been plagued by the actions of groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group and the violence of community and villainous groups.
The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced in mid-December the “atrocities” committed against civilians by the Malian army and its Russian ally Wagner, as well as by armed Islamist groups.
