Mali says military investigators have opened an investigation into events in the village of Moura, the site of an alleged massacre by local forces and Russian mercenaries.
In a statement, Mali's military prosecutor said: "Following the allegations of alleged abuses committed against civilians ... investigations have been opened by the national gendarmes on the instructions of the Defence Ministry and veterans."
Mali's army announced on 1 April that it had killed at least 203 militants in Moura, in the centre of the country, during an operation in late March.
However, that announcement followed widely shared social media reports of a civilian massacre in the area.
Witnesses point finger at Russian mercenaries
Human Rights Watch said this week that Malian forces and foreign fighters killed 300 civilians in Moura, in what it called "the worst single atrocity reported in Mali's decade-long armed conflict".
Malian forces were operating in tandem with white foreign soldiers, HRW said, adding they were believed to be Russian because witness accounts referred to them as non-French-speaking.
Russia has supplied what are officially described as military instructors to Mali, but they are widely believed to be operatives from the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
#Mali: @HRW investigations revealed that over the course of several days in late March, Malian army forces and foreign soldiers – identified by several sources as Russians – executed in small groups several hundred people who had been rounded up in Moura. https://t.co/LJ4uyChZnT
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) April 6, 2022
'Revenge attack'
Wassim Nasr, a journalist and jihad specialist with France 24, reported that islamist fighters claimed the five-day-long operation in Moura was carried out in revenge for an Al-Qaeda attack on the village of Dogofry and other nearby towns.
Nasr also said a man believed to have been part of the inner-circle of Al-Qaeda's second in command in Mali, Muhammed Kufa, was spotted in Moura, sparking the intervention by the Malian army.
Following news of the alleged massacre, questions were raised as to why the UN mission in Mali did not intervene.
"The answer is simple, but unfortunate," Nasr told France 24. "The authorities in Bamako have imposed a no-fly zone across the central region of the country, preventing MINUSMA from directly engaging."
#mali about the #Moura massacre, what was the main aim of the Malian armed forces backed by #Russia-n operatives, what happened, why didn't the MINUSMA intervene to protect civilians and where does French #Barkhane forces stand ? @France24_en https://t.co/LrJYYfopvG
— Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) April 6, 2022
Calls for MINUSMA to lead investigation
On Wednesday, independent UN human rights expert Alioune Tine urged an independent and impartial investigation into the events.
In a statement, he called on the Malian authorities to allow MINUSMA to perform the investigation.
"The findings must be made public and the alleged perpetrators brought to justice," Tine added.
The rights expert joins the United States, European Union, the UN and the Malian Human Rights Commission in calling for an investigation into the alleged massacre.
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