U.S. Rep. Gregory Weldon Meeks, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (meeks.house.gov)

By  Gary   Raynaldo   DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

U.S. Congressional members Wednesday condemned  horrific reports of Malian troops and suspected Russian mercenaries allegedly executing about 300 people in central Mali, west Africa.  Human Rights Watch said the alleged killings took place between March 27 and 31 in Moura, a rural town in the Mopti region, a location of jihadist activity.  Representatives Gregory W. Meeks and Michael McCaul, Chair and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Representatives Karen Bass and Christopher Smith, Chair and Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights, released a statement condemning the alleged killings.

“We are deeply disturbed by reports indicating the Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) and Russia-backed Wagner mercenaries massacred over 300 civilians and buried other civilian victims, some children, in mass graves in central Mali. Human Rights Watch described this joint operation as the ‘worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s decade-long conflict. We vehemently condemn such reprehensible acts that underscore a pattern of practice in Africa and elsewhere with the Russian Federation’s fingerprints all over it.”

-U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee

The alleged killings took place between March 27 and 31 in Moura, a rural town in the Mopti region, a location of jihadist activity in Mali. 

Human Rights Watch spoke with 27 people with knowledge of the killings, including witnesses from the Moura area and traders, community leaders, foreign diplomats, and security analysts. Moura is a town of about 10,000 residents located in the Djenné administrative area of central Mali, which since 2015 has been the epicenter of conflict-related violence, abuses, and displacement.  Multiple security sources who spoke to Human Rights Watch said the operation involved over 100 Russian troops and numerous other Malian soldiers.  The killings occurred amid a dramatic spike in  killings of civilians and suspects since late 2021 by armed Islamist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), and by Malian government security forces.

“The United States stands with the people of Mali in their pursuit of justice and peace. It is imperative that Mali’s junta condemns these atrocities, grant access to investigators from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and other human rights organizations who seek to confirm these reports, identify those culpable, and offer a path toward greater transparency and accountability.” 

-U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee