The village of Moura, in the center of Mali, was the target of a deadly anti-terrorist operation carried out from March 27 to 31 by the Malian Armed Forces and the paramilitaries of Wagner.
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The voice of Aziz * which trembles at the other end of the thread. “This morning, the villagers were still burying bodies. They can no longer rely on them so many”, moves this human rights defender from the center of Mali. Between Sunday 27 and Thursday, March 31, Moura, a village in the Mopti region, was the target of an anti-terrorist operation conducted by the Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) and white paramilitaries identified by local and international sources such as. belonging to the Russian private security group Wagner. Five days of blockade whose conduct could be intersected by Le Monde with several security and humanitarian sources, Malian, West African and Western.
On Sunday, March 27th is a fair day in Moura. The locality is renowned for the quality of its cattle market. In this last weekend before the start of Ramadan, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages are numerous, to buy sheep. Among the crowd, armed men circulate at the sight of all. Moura is located in a wooded and flooded area of access, controlled for years by the jihadists of the Katiba Macina, a group led by the chief Peul Hamadoun Koufa and a member of the support group to Islam and the Muslims (GSIM , affiliated with al-Qaida).
The Malian army, which continues to move forward this enemy since the triggering of the war in the north of the country in 2012, decides to switch to the offensive in Moura. The intervention, which mobilizes several dozens of soldiers of the army, air and special forces, enter into the operation “Kélétigui” (“the one who makes war” in bambara), launched End 2021 in the center and south of Mali by the Fama accompanied by their Russian suppletes.
“They did not distinguish between jihadists or others”
“Helicopters flew over the market pulling on those who were trying to flee. Meanwhile, the jihadists got rid of their weapons and found themselves in the crowd. Malian and Russian soldiers were landed on the ground and It was the beginning of the massacre, supports a defender of African human rights. They gathered men, have performed a lot, have searched the houses to kill those who hoved it. They did not do distinction between jihadists or others. “
In the market, between dwellings and near a watercourse, many bodies would have been found, some calcined, others riddled with bullets. Common pits would have been dug by the inhabitants themselves. Without anyone else to determine the number, identity or status – civilian or combatant – victims of these extrajudicial executions.
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