The Malian army and “white soldiers” are involved in the death in early March in Mali, not far from the Mauritanian border, of 33 civilians, including 29 Mauritanians and four Malians, according to a report by experts commissioned by the United Nations consulted Friday by AFP.
The bodies of these civilians were found a few km from the village of Robinet El Ataye in the Ségou region, where “white soldiers”, elements of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner according to a diplomat in New York, and Malian soldiers had the day before , on March 5, arrested, tied up, beaten and taken away 33 men, says this report by the UN Group of Experts on Mali, which was transmitted to the Security Council at the end of July.
The disappearance, with vague contours at the time, of these civilians on March 5 in Robinet El Ataye, caused a stir in Mali and Mauritania. Nouakchott had accused the Malian army of “recurring criminal acts” against Mauritanian citizens in this border region. Bamako had said that nothing called his army into question.
Bamako refutes the presence of mercenaries
The two countries had opened a joint investigation, the results of which had not been published in early August. A report by the UN Group of Experts on Mali, which was transmitted to the Security Council at the end of July and which AFP was able to consult on Friday, lifts the veil on the death of these 33 civilians by painting a macabre account which overwhelms the Malian army and “white soldiers”.
The latter would be part, according to a diplomat in New York to AFP, of the paramilitaries of the Wagner group deployed with the Malian soldiers since January. Bamako refutes the presence of mercenaries, referring to the presence of “instructors”, while Moscow claims to have nothing to do with this company present in Mali on a “commercial basis”.