United Nations | The Malian army has committed “war crimes” and several armed groups “crimes against humanity”, indicates the International Commission of Inquiry for Mali established by the UN in a report sent to members of the Security Council and obtained exclusively by AFP.
Without being the only one, the Malian army figures in the first rank of the accused of this commission, which considers to have gathered “reasonable grounds to believe” that it “committed war crimes”, according to this report of nearly 350 pages , which advocates the creation of a court specializing in international crimes.
Established in January 2018, this commission, composed of Swedish Lena Sundh, Cameroonian Simon Munzu and Mauritian Vinod Boolell, investigated the period 2012-2018.
In mid-2020, she submitted her report to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who forwarded it last week to the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council.
Asked by AFP, the UN communication service did not comment on the text, which has not yet been made public.
In 2012, the Malian military seized power in a coup that was supposed to stem the army’s rout in the face of pro-independence rebels and jihadists in the north, but it actually precipitated it, plunging the country into a crisis that continues.
In 2012-2013, the security and defense forces were guilty of “assassinations” targeting “particularly members of the Tuareg and Arab communities”, associating them with the independence rebels and jihadist groups.
After the appearance in 2015 of a jihadist group led by the Fulani preacher Amadou Koufa, the Peuls of central Mali were victims of amalgamations: “The assassinations committed by the Malian armed forces have increasingly targeted members of [cette] community, ”says the text.
Several signatories to the peace agreement, including the former rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the pro-government group Gatia, are also responsible for “war crimes”, according to the commission.
She also accused other actors of the conflict of “crimes against humanity”, in particular armed jihadist groups whose influence and violence continue to spread in the sub-region, but also the Dan Na militia. Ambassagou, who has set up as a defender of the Dogons in central Mali and is accused of massacres of Fulani villagers.
Unlike other reports, the findings of this commission may provide a legal basis for future trials.