Mali wedding airstrike

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Mali wedding airstrike
Part of the Mali War
Mali adm location map.svg
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Bounti
Location of Bounti
LocationBounti, Mopti Region, Mali
Date3 January 2021
Target AQIM fighters
Attack type
Deaths22
InjuredUnknown
VictimsCivilians
Perpetrators Flag of France.svg French Air and Space Force

On 3 January 2021, the French Armed Forces carried out an airstrike targeting a wedding claiming that terrorists were killed without any collateral damage. A UN report later revealed that out of the 22 people killed, 19 were civilians. [1]

Contents

Background

On 2 January 2021, in coordination with the militaries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger the French military launched Operation Éclipse in and around the city of Boni. [2]

Airstrike

On 3 January 2021, Islamic extremists confronted a wedding in the village of Bounti in Mopti Region, central Mali, ordering the attendees to separate by gender. An airstrike, carried out by a French Mirage 2000 aircraft and MQ-9 Reaper drone, then killed 22 people, including children, according to witnesses and local officials including the mayor. [3] [4] [5] [6]

According to the French and Malian authorities, the bombing had targeted a group of about forty jihadists. However, the local Fula organisation Tabital Pulaaku  [ fr ] provided another version: 19 men had been killed, all of whom were civilians attending a wedding. The majority of them were elderly. [7] The injured were taken into charge by Medicins Sans Frontieres, who confirmed that most of them were elderly civilians. [8] [9]

Residents also said a helicopter opened fire on the ceremony. [10] The French Armed Forces said they had killed "dozens" of militant Islamists in Hombori, a few kilometers away, on that day, but that a connection between the strike and a wedding party "does not correspond to information collected prior to the airstrike". [3] [4] [5]

On 30 March 2021, the MINUSMA United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali concluded that the strike killed 19 unarmed civilians and three armed men. [11] They said the strike was on a wedding attended by about 100 civilians and five armed men, presumably members of a group affiliated with al-Qaeda. [11] [12]

The French authorities maintained their version of events; the head of the French armed forces called the UN report "biased". [12] [13] [14] [15]

References

  1. ↑ Maclean, Ruth (30 March 2021). "A Wedding, an Airstrike, and Outrage at the French Military". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  2. ↑ "Mali: with French soldiers from Operation Eclipse chasing jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda". Le Monde. 4 February 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Witnesses say 20 are killed in an airstrike in central Mali during a wedding party". CTV News . 5 January 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  4. 1 2 "Wedding guests killed in Mali airstrike, local sources say". The Guardian . 5 January 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  5. 1 2 "Unexplained deadly airstrike at Mali wedding raises questions over French involvement". The Telegraph . 6 January 2021.
  6. ↑ Freudenthal, Emmanuel; Gebauer, Matthias; Huon, Patricia; Nsaibia, Héni; Popp, Maximilian P; Sandberg, Britta; van der Weide, Youri (9 June 2021). ""People Collected Severed Arms, Legs and Heads"". Spiegel. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  7. ↑ Macé, Célian (8 January 2021). "Mali : à Bounti, 3 bombes, 19 morts et 2 versions". Libération . Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  8. ↑ Bensimon, Cyril (12 January 2021). "Mali : les blessés de Bounti soignés par MSF « étaient tous des hommes, âgés pour la plupart »". Le Monde . Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  9. ↑ "Mali : une enquête de l'ONU conclut que l'armée française a tué 19 civils en janvier, Paris réfute toute bavure". Franceinfo (in French). 30 March 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  10. ↑ "Sahel conflict: France rejects reports of airstrike on Mali wedding". BBC. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  11. 1 2 "French air attack in Mali killed 19 unarmed civilians, UN says". Al Jazeera . 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  12. 1 2 "French Strike in Mali Killed 19 Civilians in January: UN". The Defense Post. 31 March 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  13. ↑ "French army chief says UN report into air strike was biased". BBC . 22 May 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2025.
  14. ↑ Thomas-Johnson, Amandla. "'Stop lying': Malians call for justice over French air strike". Al Jazeera . Retrieved 16 June 2021.
  15. ↑ "Mali/France: Investigate French Airstrike Killing 19". Human Rights Watch. 21 January 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
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