UN confirms involvement of Malian soldiers and ‘white soldiers’ in death of 33 civilians

The Malian army and “white soldiers” are involved in the death, in early March in Mali, not far from the border with Mauritania, of 33 civilians, including 29 Mauritanians and 4 Malian citizens, according to a report by UN experts, on which Agence France-Presse saw today.

The bodies of these civilians were found a few kilometers from the village of Robine El-Atage, in the region of Ségou, where “white soldiers”, elements of the Russian paramilitary company Wagner according to a diplomat in New York, and the Malian military had previously on March 5, arrest, tie, beat and take with them 33 men, according to this report of the UN Panel of Experts on Mali, which was transmitted at the end of July to the Security Council.

The disappearance of these civilians on March 5 in Robine El Atage had caused an uproar in Mali and Mauritania.

Nouakchott had accused the Malian army of “repeated criminal acts” against Moorish civilians in that border region. Bamako had declared that there was nothing to incriminate its army.

The two countries had begun a joint investigation, the results of which have not yet been made public.

A report by the UN Panel of Experts on Mali, transmitted at the end of July to the Security Council and seen today by AFP, exposes the deaths of these 33 civilians with a macabre narrative that blames the Malian army and “white soldiers”.

These latter are alleged, according to a diplomat in New York, to belong to the Wagner company paramilitaries who have been deployed since January together with the Malian military. Bamako denies the presence of mercenaries and speaks of the presence of “trainers”, while Moscow maintains that it has nothing to do with this company, which it says is present in Mali “on a commercial basis”.

Source: AMPE