In two videos whose recording date could not be formally verified, a senior member of the Malian army makes comments which could constitute confessions of past abuses. He asks the inhabitants of a village to lay down their weapons and send the message to the jihadists in the area. Then he violently threatens the villagers, in comments which seem to confirm the numerous accusations of abuses made against the Malian Armed Forces. The videos, which appear to date from last weekend, began circulating Monday evening, May 13 on social networks.
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According to the label stuck on his uniform, his name is Koumaré. And according to his stripes, he is a lieutenant-colonel, a high rank, especially in the field.
In a village apparently suspected of collusion with jihadists, this senior officer invites the gathered inhabitants to recognize their wrongs and lay down their weapons before the winter – the rainy season usually begins in June in Mali. He even suggests that they contact the Talls, an emblematic religious family. from the town of Nioro in the Sahelin the Kayes region.
“ Spread the message “, further urges Lieutenant-Colonel Koumaré, who speaks in Bambara, surrounded by other Malian soldiers, while a civilian translates his words into the Fulani language.
Lieutenant-Colonel Koumaré specifies, in his speech, that he is in a village about forty kilometers from Nioro. According to several local sources, it could be the town of Gavinané, on the Mauritanian border. Because the Fulani dialect used corresponds well to that used in the Nioro area.
Then, the high-ranking Malian officer moves from promises of forgiveness to threats: “ you’ve never seen us in operation, but you’ve heard about it: we cut people in two, we slit others’ throats, we burned villages. » The Malian soldier justifies these acts, clearly assumed and even claimed, but amounting to war crimes – summary executions, collective punishments -, by the fact that the jihadists themselves use violence.
He adds that the army’s objective is to secure Mali. “ We burned villages because they didn’t understand », continues the Malian soldier, as a warning. At no time does Lieutenant-Colonel Koumaré cite the Russian auxiliaries of the Wagner group, whose presence alongside the Malian armed forces has still not been officially recognized by the transitional authorities.
Asked by RFI about these videos, the Malian army did not respond.
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