March 27 of last year was market day in Moura, a village in the Mopti region of central Mali, so the streets were full of people. At some point, a military helicopter flew overhead and began to fire into the crowd. At the same time, four other helicopters landed, disgorging Malian government troops along with armed white military personnel who spoke a language that witnesses could not identify. The soldiers herded the people into the center of the village, shooting at those who tried to escape.
This was the beginning of a five-day military counter-terrorism operation that resulted in the deaths of at least 500 people, according to a report recently released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
According to the report, on March 28, soldiers searched house to house for those who fit their description of what a terrorist might look like, including men with long beards, those who wore ankle-length trousers, or people who had marks on their shoulders, ostensibly indicating that they habitually carried weapons. Such people were summarily executed by the soldiers or the “armed white men”.
There were also eye-witness reports of torture, and sexual violence, including rape, against at least 58 women and girls.
The United States believes that the foreign armed white men were members of the Russian-based Wagner Group.
“The United States is appalled by the disregard for human life exhibited by elements of the Malian Armed Forces in cooperation with the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group – a transnational criminal organization – during the operation in Moura, Mali in March of last year,” said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller in a written statement. “As we have said before, the Wagner Group is a destabilizing force whose personnel have engaged in an ongoing pattern of abuses, including execution-style killings, sexual violence, and torture in Mali and other nations struggling with instability.”
The United States supports the Malian people as they continue to fight against terrorism. However, human rights abuses and violations like those committed at Moura are counter-productive, as they will only drive aggrieved civilians toward terrorists and other armed groups.
“We call on [Mali’s] transition government,” said Spokesperson Miller, “to pursue an independent, impartial, efficient, exhaustive, and transparent investigation to hold those responsible accountable, consistent with the recommendation in the UN report.”
