Long regarded as ” collateral damage “, civilians are-they become targets of armed conflict ? This Wednesday, June 10, Amnesty International issued a detailed report, which accuses directly of the soldiers of the three countries of the Sahel as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, involved in the fight against the jihadists, to “sow terror” in the villages, where they have caused the death or disappearance of nearly 200 people between February and April, according to the NGO. Numbers which are estimates to the downside.
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the will of The forces of defence and security to obtain “victories” and to prove the results is not without link in this acceleration of the violations of human rights in the area. Whether in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, “the soldiers spread terror and commit mass killings in villages under the guise of counter-terrorism operations,” wrote the advocacy organization human rights. “Dozens of people were arbitrarily arrested, and one remains without news of a certain number of them. “
This cause joined the numerous denunciations of abuses attributed to the armed forces of these three countries. Especially, they are produced in the wake of the summit of Pau, in France, which was attended by the 13 January 2020 the countries of the G5 Sahel, including the three countries mentioned above and in which these countries reaffirmed their commitment in the fight against insecurity in the Sahel. The author of Amnesty International’s investigation, the researcher Ousmane Diallo, sees a direct link since, in response to requests for results made by Paris, the armies of these three countries have at heart to demonstrate that they have taken the ancestry on the insurgency in the region.
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abuses will increase, and the disappearance also
Specifically, said the NGO ? Between February and April, at least 57 of the villagers have been the victims of murders and 142 have disappeared in the hands of soldiers of the regular armies. Amnesty based its report on interviews with 33 witnesses, as well as on ” pictures of the corpses of the victims and of the presumed location of mass graves [and] lists of missing persons “.
The testimonies gathered describe the civilian populations targeted by security forces because they accused of complicity with the jihadists. A large majority of the victims are of the Fulanis, according to the report.
The killings, some of which relate to “extrajudicial executions” could ” constitute war crimes “, stressed Amnesty. It calls on governments to ” put an end to the impunity enjoyed by the security forces.
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abuse repetitive
” The insecurity in the Sahel, where the population is trapped between the attacks of armed groups and ongoing military operations. It is known that the army conducts every time to dozens of arbitrary arrests, and that some of the people arrested do not respawn ever, but we do not know the actual extent of the violations committed by the security forces, ” said Samira Daoud, director for the West Africa and central Africa at Amnesty International.
” Until now, the commitments of the governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, promising to remedy these violations have not been followed up. The authorities of these countries urgently need to thoroughly investigate these abuses, many of which may constitute war crimes, and to ensure that the population is protected during the military operations against armed groups “, she concludes.
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surveys that do not lead
The armies of mali and niger have been singled out in early April by the UN mission in Mali (Minusma) for over a hundred abuses attributed to their soldiers in Mali. The Amnesty International report denounces the violations committed in the context of the military response to the insecurity in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the three countries facing the threat of armed groups, such as the support Group to islam and to muslims (GSIM) and the islamic State the grand Sahara (SAES).
The security Council of the united nations has debated the issue Friday and said, ” having taken note of the measures announced by many governments of the Sahel in the face of these allegations of human rights violations “.
The same day, thirty people were killed in the attack of a village predominantly fulani in central Mali. NGOS have claimed that the attackers were members of the mali military. The malian government has said that it is “concerned by these grave allegations” and said of the investigations.
For its part, France, which is engaged in the Sahel, in particular at the side of these three armies, with his military force Barkhane (over 5,000 men), has welcomed the ” openness of inquiry “. “France made the fight against impunity a priority issue in its dialogue with countries of the region,” said the spokesman of the French ministry of foreign Affairs. “It calls for the perpetrators of such acts are identified and brought to justice,” she added.
The violence of jihadists, mixed with inter-community conflicts, which affect this part of the Sahel have made in total by 2019 approximately 4, 000 deaths in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, according to the UN.
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