At least 19 extremists and three armed groups have been eliminated by the Malian armed forces since March 22 during operations against jihadists, according to a statement issued by the General Staff.
Governed by a military junta since August 2020, Mali has been in turmoil since 2012. The jihadists spread from the north to the center and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
According to several reports by the United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), nearly 600 civilians were killed in the country in 2021 in violence blamed mainly on jihadist groups and self-defense militias and the armed forces. Mali's military-dominated government says it "neutralized" 203 jihadists in Moura, but witnesses interviewed by media and Human Rights Watch (HRW) say soldiers killed numerous civilians. Mali's military justice system announced on Wednesday that it was opening an investigation into the recent events in Moura.
While welcoming the announcement, the UN envoy for Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, urged authorities in Bamako on Thursday to allow the UN access to the hard-to-reach location, where controversial events took place.
MINUSMA "sought access to the area and was able to conduct a reconnaissance flight on April 3," he told the UN Security Council, but the deployment of a mission there has "so far" not been authorized.
The Malian general staff "invites" in its statement "the populations to distance themselves from the terrorists to minimize the risks of collateral damage knowing that the lesson learned during the last actions confirms the use of civilians as human shields."
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