The Malian junta has refuted accusations of military abuse against civilians, alliance with mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group and segregation against the Fulani community, after a new unfavorable human rights report.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) published a report on Thursday, November 24, reporting an unprecedented increase in 2022 in attacks against civilians in central Mali, one of the main centers of violence in the Sahel.
Use of Wagner services
According to FIDH, the report denounces the crimes perpetrated by jihadists, community militias, but also the Malian army and the Russian paramilitary group Wagner. It stigmatizes the prevailing impunity. “These allegations are for the most part tendentious, unchecked and made on purpose, with the aim of tarnishing the image of the Malian Defense and Security Forces.“, Says the government controlled by the junta in a document published Thursday evening and taking up the elements of response regularly opposed to such reports.
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The government speaks ofdisplay of facts on the basis of non-contradictory testimonies, not based on any tangible proof and often made under the threat of terrorist groups“. He assures that the army operates “in strict compliance with human rights and international humanitarian law“, and that the alleged violations always give rise to a “diligent processingand surveys.
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As for the recourse to the services of Wagner, it is in fact a question of “Russian trainers and advisers“, whose presence in Mali “is very old“. “It dates back to 1960 with the sending of some instructors to help Mali build its army and its administration.“, says the government. The military in power since the coup d’état of August 2020 turned away in 2021 from the former French ally and its partners, in favor of Russia.
Impunity
The government “totally reject» Accusations of persecution against the Fulani, a group reputed to provide many elements to the jihadists. He criticizes the FIDH for ignoring “remarkable progress» accomplished according to him against the jihadists, but also the efforts made against impunity, such as the current revision of the penal and military codes or the project of a special assize court for gender-based crimes.
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The Malian Association for Human Rights (AMDH), a member organization of FIDH with which it had established a previous report in 2018, indicated in a press release that it “dissociatesof the new report, due toserious breaches» to the principles of «impartiality, objectivity and loyalty“.