- Witnesses say the white men present at the massacre spoke Russian
- The Russian Wagner Group recently joined the Malian Armed Forces
- The UN has accused Wagner of mistreatment elsewhere in Africa
- The western powers fear that Mali could be further destabilized
BAMAKO, April 14 – It was a market day in the town of Moura in central Mali when Malian troops, backed by white mercenaries, descended in helicopters and opened fire on confused residents, witnesses said.
Stable owner Amadou saw the soldiers pouring through the city on the morning of March 27 and ran home. They arrested him hours later and took him to a river bank on the outskirts of town, where thousands of men were sitting with their hands tied.
For the next four days, the men stayed in the blazing sun with little food or water and watched as soldiers gradually took groups aside, led them to the edge of a mass grave and shot them dead, Amadou and two other witnesses told Reuters.
“It was unimaginable,” he said, overcome with exhaustion and emotion. “They came, they took 15, 20 people and lined them up. They made her kneel and shot her.”
The witnesses testified in the Malian capital of Bamako.
Most of the soldiers who killed civilians were Malians, they said. But dozens of white men in army uniforms, who spoke what residents thought was Russian, were actively involved, they said. French is widely spoken in Mali, but the government soldiers and the whites communicated in sign language since they did not speak the same language.
The white men were the first to get out of the helicopters and opened fire on fleeing residents, four onlookers said.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify its accounts or visit Moura, a town of 10,000 controlled by an al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group.
The Malian army said it killed 203 militants in a military operation in Moura. It denies reports of executions and has not responded to a request from Reuters for comment.
The Wagner Group, a private Russian military company that recently worked with the Malian army, could not be reached for comment. Continue reading
But the testimonies supported evidence gathered by New York-based Human Rights Watch, which last week claimed Malian soldiers, aided by suspected Russians, killed about 300 civilians in Moura. Continue reading
The reports have raised concerns that Wagner’s presence will further destabilize Mali, a parched and poor country home to groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda that have killed thousands in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger .
Western powers strongly opposed Wagner’s intervention, warning that it could foment violence. The United Nations accuses the group of killing civilians while working in the Central African Republic. Russian officials have denied reports of abuses.
The European Union has imposed sanctions on the group, which it says works on behalf of the Kremlin. Moscow denies connections. Continue reading
BOND LIKE ANIMALS
Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near the border with Niger in Dansongo Circle, Mali, August 23, 2021. REUTERS/Paul Lorgerie File Photo/File Photo
Continue reading
Moura, in the Niger floodplain, has been out of government control for years, local residents said.
Militants enforce Sharia and their own tax system. They urge men to cut their trousers short and keep their beards long. They visit the city to buy groceries but live in the bush, residents said.
Some came out on March 27, they told Reuters. Human Rights Watch said the soldiers clashed with armed militants in the city that day.
On the river bank, soldiers examined the men’s trigger fingers and shoulders for signs that they had fired or carried weapons, Amadou said.
“They tied us up like animals,” he said.
Witnesses said soldiers appeared to select people for execution based on their ethnicity and dress.
Fulani herders, some known for joining Islamist groups, were singled out, witnesses said. Those from the Bobo and Bella groups were ordered to dig the graves.
A soldier asked a man with a beard and his pants cut off if he needed to urinate. When he said no, the soldier ordered him to stand up, said a witness who asked to remain anonymous.
“The soldier shot him in the back, then walked up to him and shot him twice in the head.”
The white troops withdrew after four days, but the Malian soldiers stayed briefly. One gave a speech apologizing for the killings, Amadou and two other witnesses said.
Human Rights Watch called the incident “the worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s decades-long armed conflict.”
The Malian military police have launched an investigation, as has the UN, although the UN has said it has not been granted access to Moura.
The Malian army denied the allegations on April 5, saying it conducted a professional operation to target Islamist militants in the city.
“Total control of the site enabled the search, identification and weeding out of terrorists camouflaged and hidden among civilians,” the army said in a statement.
Both Mali, whose government seized power in a military coup in 2021, and the Kremlin have previously said Russian forces there are not mercenaries but trainers who help local troops with equipment bought from Russia.
France, Mali’s former colonial ruler, has had thousands of troops in the country fighting militants for nearly a decade but is withdrawing amid fractured ties with the military government, including the arrival of Russian contractors.
Reporting by Paul Lorgerie; Writing by Nellie Peyton and Edward McAllister, Editing by Angus MacSwan