A convoy of Malian troops was targeted by a roadside bomb in Hombori, in the center of the country, in mid-April. Subsequently, the government army, along with foreign troops, carried out an operation in the village, “in which at least 50 civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed and more than 500 others were detained”.
The UN mission offers no further details on who these foreign fighters are, but several Western countries have accused the junta in Bamako on several occasions in recent months of enlisting the help of Russia’s controversial Wagner group, a militia. The junta denies and maintains that these are instructors from the Russian army.
During the entire second trimester, operations by the Malian army killed a total of 96 civilians, MINUSMA said.
