Military justice in Mali announced on Wednesday night that it had launched an investigation into last week’s events in Moura, in the central part of the country, where witnesses were talking about mass executions of civilians by members of the armed forces and foreign fighters.
Following the “allegations of alleged atrocities committed against civilian victims (…), the gendarmerie began to conduct investigations under the instructions of the Ministry of Defense (…) to shed light” on the case, the military court prosecutor in Mopti informed , a big city near Moura, with a press release he published.
The prosecutor will go on the spot “very soon” together with investigators and forensic experts, the text adds.
Authorities in Mali, which was ousted by the army in a 2020 coup, have been under increasing pressure to conduct an independent investigation into the March 27-31 incident in Moura, a city of about 10,000 people in one of its main strongholds. violence in the Sahel.
The military and eyewitnesses who spoke to the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) give diametrically opposed versions of events.
The general staff assured that the army “neutralized” 203 jihadists during a large-scale operation. Eyewitnesses reported mass executions of civilians in summary proceedings, rape and looting by soldiers and foreign fighters believed to be Russian soldiers or mercenaries.
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