The Gendarmerie Nationale is charged with conducting “thorough investigations” into accusations of massacres of civilians.
The international community suspects the Malian Armed Forces (Fama) and Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group of abuses during an air-land offensive against jihadists from March 23 to 31 in Moura, central Mali.
Several Western countries, including France, have called on the transitional authorities to investigate allegations of summary executions of civilians. The Public Prosecutor at the Mopti Military Court, in a statement issued Wednesday evening, announced that the process had been initiated on the instructions of the Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
“A judicial team will be transported very shortly to the Moura site by the Military Prosecutor exercising his judicial police prerogatives. He will be accompanied by a forensic doctor, a technical and scientific police team, (but also) investigators,” the document states.
Bamako is committed to keeping the public “regularly informed” of the progress of the investigations and to making the results public. Officially, 203 jihadists died in the Moura operation.
ID/fss/abj/APA