It was a long-awaited report in Bamako as in Paris. The result of an investigation whose objective was to try to disentangle the true from the false following a disputed French strike, carried out within the framework of the operation “Barkhane”, on January 3, on the edge of the village of Bounti, in central Mali.
Almost three months after the events, the United Nations stabilization mission in Mali (Minusma) made public on Tuesday, March 30, the conclusions of his investigations. They directly implicate the French forces deployed in the Sahel while Paris has been trying painfully for many months to review its commitment in the region.
According to this thirty-six-page document produced by its human rights division, the French strike would have killed “At least twenty-two people”, of which nineteen were “Civilians”. Among them were exclusively men, aged 23 to 71. Women and children had stayed away. Only three of these victims were said to have been members of an armed terrorist group, in this case the Katiba Serma, affiliated with the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the most powerful jihadist alliance in the Sahel. “At least eight other civilians were injured” in this strike, according to the Minusma.
The fifteen UN investigators, supported by two experts from the United Nations forensic science and protected by the peacekeepers, also ensure in their report, to be “Able to confirm the holding of a wedding celebration” from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the day of the strike at a place located 1 km from Bounti, in a semi-wooded area. Even if this place “Was not usually used for weddings” and that there was “No music, no dance, no external signs and festive manifestos”, he would have been judged ” more adapted [par les villageois] weather conditions and the number of guests ”.
A hundred civilians gathered
While a number of testimonies have so far reported a few dozen participants, Minusma has come to the conclusion that this ceremony had brought together “A hundred civilians”. Among them were the alleged members of the katiba Serma, totaling five, and “Arrived in the village aboard three motorcycles in the morning” January 3.
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