Mali’s army has launched an investigation into the killing of civilians allegedly by soldiers and Russian mercenaries earlier this week in a rare probe of human rights abuses since the military took power in 2020.
The Front for the Liberation of Azawad, the Tuareg independence movement based in the country’s north, accused the Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner Group mercenaries of intercepting two civilian vehicles bound for Algeria from the eastern Malian city of Gao and “coldly executing” at least 24 people among the passengers on Monday.
Without referring to the killings on Wednesday, the Malian armed forces slammed “intoxicating campaigns” against the army. By Friday, the army announced it was opening an investigation into the deaths.
According to the Tuareg independence movement earlier this week, one vehicle was set on fire while the other escaped with some survivors.
A family member of one of the drivers of the vehicles told the AFP news agency on Tuesday that one car had been transporting migrants.
“They encountered a group of Wagner mercenaries and some Malian soldiers who shot at them. In the first car, everyone died. My cousin, too,” they said on the condition of anonymity.
However, Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan think tank, told The Associated Press that it was unlikely that the army’s investigation into the incident would find fault in the actions of the soldiers or the Russian mercenaries.
“The objective of the investigations is going to be more about countering the allegations against [the army] and Wagner, rather than trying to find any wrongdoing by the latter. The conclusion of the investigation is likely to say that those allegations are false,” Lyammouri said.
Mali has been in a crisis for more than a decade. In 2020, a military group, riding on popular discontent over attacks by armed groups, seized power in a coup that toppled the democratically elected president.
Mali’s military rulers, led by Colonel Assimi Goita, turned to Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries for security after breaking ties with former colonial ruler France.
In December, Human Rights Watch condemned the “atrocities” committed against civilians by the army and its Russian ally, as well as by groups affiliated with ISIL and al-Qaeda.
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