In a press release published on Monday, June 20, 2022, the United Nations announces the opening of an investigation in these regions of Mali, following a series of attacks which caused more than one hundred deaths.
More than 130 civilians were killed on June 18 and 19 in central Mali in attacks attributed to jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda, one of the country’s worst known massacres and the latest in a series of ongoing killings across the Sahel.
The government reported Monday, June 20, 132 deaths that it attributed to the Katiba Macina of the Fulani preacher Amadou Kouffa, affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Following these tragic events, the Head of State, Colonel Assimi Goïta, decreed three days of national mourning on Monday. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) strongly condemned these “heinous acts” which constitute serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
“In application of its human rights mandate, MINUSMA will conduct an investigation into the precise circumstances of these attacks”, indicated the UN Mission, noting that it will be a question of “supporting the competent Malian authorities in their efforts to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of these heinous acts”.
“These attacks also caused the forced displacement of several hundred civilians,” said the UN mission, which maintains that several homes and shops were set on fire. “Similarly, the Mission assisted in the evacuation of wounded to the town of Sévaré,” the UN noted.