2023-12-19 20:33:55
In Mali, nearly 30 people were killed by the Malian army and the Wagner group on Monday in Gathi Loumou. This commune in the Youwarou circle, Mopti region, in the center of the country was the scene of a military operation on which no official information has been communicated. But many local sources report a new massacre.
Published on: 12/19/2023 – 9:33 p.m.
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The convoy made up of Malian soldiers and mostly Wagner mercenaries left Léré in the morning. The operation was carried out on the day of the weekly Gathi Loumou fair. A strategy that has become very common which makes it possible to target jihadists who have come to sell or resupply at the risk of causing heavy damage among civilians who are massively grouped together.
According to information cross-checked by RFI from numerous local security and civilian sources, 27 or 28 people were executed. Almost exclusively men, including three young rappers. All were shot and killed. A woman is also among the victims. She would have had her throat slit.
According to these same sources, the bodies were buried late in the afternoon. Except one of them, whom the villagers suspect of having been set up with an explosive. Testimonies also report significant looting and destruction, pushing families to leave to find refuge around thirty kilometers away in the town of Youwarou.
Tuesday evening, the Malian armed forces announced that they had carried out “ offensive reconnaissance » in the Gathi Loumou sector. The Malian general staff claims that 11 terrorists were “ neutralized ».
The Katiba Macina of Jnim, linked to al-Qaïda, is notoriously present in this area which even once served as a refuge for Hamadou Kouffa, founder and leader of Katiba Macina. In recent years, Gathi Loumou and its surroundings have suffered jihadist attacks, anti-terrorist operations by the French Barkhane force or the Malian army. From now on, residents will also remember Wagner’s mercenaries.
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