he controversy has not died down since the disputed airstrike carried out by Operation Barkhane near the Fulani village of Bounti, in central Mali, on January 3. This Tuesday, March 30, the conclusions of the long-awaited United Nations investigation report, consulted by Agence France-Presse, shed new light by maintaining that 19 people killed during this operation were indeed civilians gathered for a wedding, and not just jihadists, as Paris had maintained until then. This report constitutes the most serious questioning of an operation of the anti-jihadist force Barkhane by the United Nations since the beginning of the French engagement in the Sahel in 2013.
What exactly happened?
What the United Nations report says is clear: at the end of the investigation conducted by the human rights division of the UN mission in Mali (Minusma), supported by the United Nations forensic police, in Based on direct interviews with at least 115 people, almost as many telephone interviews and a certain number of group interviews, the Minusma “is able to confirm the holding of a wedding celebration which gathered at the place of the strike a hundred civilians among whom were five armed people, presumed members of the Katiba Serma, assures the summary of the report. In fact, in this area circulates the Katiba Serma, affiliated with the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, or JNIM in Arabic), a jihadist alliance itself affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
At least 22 people were killed, including three suspected members of the Katiba Serma – 19 instantly, 3 during their evacuation, the document claims. The affected group “was overwhelmingly made up of civilians who are people protected against attacks under international humanitarian law,” says Minusma.
UN experts have not found any evidence on the spot attesting to the presence of weapons or motorcycles, the preferred means of transport for jihadists, says the text without explaining the apparent contradiction with the fact that presumed members of the Katiba Serma were armed. This strike “raises significant concerns regarding respect for the principles of the conduct of hostilities, in particular the precautionary principle”, according to the document.
Minusma therefore “recommends” that the Malian and French authorities conduct “an independent, credible and transparent investigation”. She advocates examining, and even modifying, pre-strike processes.
It also recommends that the French and Malians seek to establish responsibilities and, if necessary, grant reparation to victims and their relatives.
France evokes an “information war”
The French Ministry of the Armed Forces very quickly stepped up to the plate on Tuesday, and refuted any blunders in Mali and issued “many reservations” on the United Nations investigation, according to a statement also sent to AFP. The ministry “maintains with constancy and reaffirms with force” that “on January 3, the French armed forces carried out an air strike targeting an armed terrorist group identified as such” near Bounti, underlines it. He “expresses many reservations as to the methodology adopted” and “cannot consider that this report provides any evidence contradicting the facts as described by the French armed forces”.
This investigation “opposes unverifiable local testimonies and unsupported hypotheses to a robust intelligence method of the French armies, framed by the requirements of international humanitarian law”, retorts the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, which considers in this context “impossible to distinguish credible sources of false testimonies of possible terrorist sympathizers or individuals under the influence (including the threat) of jihadist groups ”. “Under these conditions, the Ministry of the Armed Forces considers that the allegations made about the action of the force and its integrity are unfounded and firmly maintains its version of the facts,” he concludes.
France engages approximately 5,100 men in the Sahel within the Barkhane force. It has already been the target in the past with suspicion of burrowing. The strike of Bounti, in a region of sparse forests and bushes overhung by a rocky massif where elements of the Jnim are located but where other groups linked for their part to the Islamic State (IS), s ‘was part of “Eclipse”, an anti-jihadist operation carried out mainly in central Mali, but also in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger by Barkhane and his local partners.
While Barkhane strikes regularly take place in the Douentza-Hombori sector, a region located in the so-called “three borders” area, between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the controversy really began when the Tabital Peul association Pulaaku and other witnesses claimed that bombs that day exploded in the crowd at a wedding, killing scores of civilians.
After days of silence, in Paris, the Ministry of the Armed Forces had also given its version. The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, had assured that the assertions on a French blunder were of an “informational war”. The Malian authorities had provided a version of the events consistent with that of France.
Since then, several NGOs, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Malian Human Rights Association (AMDH), have called for an independent investigation. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) also considered “important that all light be shed on this event”.
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