Malian military and Russian mercenaries killed dozens of civilians last month during a military operation in Mali's northern Kidal province, a civil society organization and local community members said, amid heightened violence since the ruling junta in the capital Bamako scrapped a peace deal with rebel groups, the Associated Press reported. quoted by BTA.
The killings took place between June 20 and 29 around the town of Abeybara in Kidal province, non-governmental organizations and local residents said. The Malian army said it had no reports of killings, but added that military operations were indeed taking place in the country.
The region is a former hotbed of an insurgency by Tuareg tribal groups fighting against government forces in a conflict that has increasingly killed civilians. Some of the groups have been associated with “Al Qaeda” in the past.
Hamadin Driz ag Mohammed, the son of a local elder, told AP that Malian soldiers and fighters from the Russian private military company “Wagner” killed 46 civilians and stole their valuables. The organization “Civil Observatory for monitoring and protecting the human rights of the Azawad people” (as the Tuareg call themselves – note ed. ) speaks of at least 60 dead on the outskirts of Abeibara, who were buried in mass graves.
Malian army spokesman Lt. Col. Suleiman Dembele denied the allegations.