The episode has led to Western criticism of Moscow amidst its invasion of Ukraine and growing engagement with the continent. It also denies Russian participation in the Moura affair and their presence in the country but says it cooperates with Russian “instructors” under a longstanding bilateral cooperation agreement with Moscow. The Malian military described the incident as a “ systemic cleansing of the entire area“. The “Non-French speaking white soldiers”, and “white men with a bizarre language” as described by locals to Human Rights Watch, are widely believed to be members of the Kremlin-linked group Wagner, the only Russian soldiers currently in the country. One trader said dozens of men, including two of his brothers, were executed by Russian-speaking soldiers who “took them several meters away and executed them, point-blank”. Witnesses said the bloodied operation lasted for more than four days, with about 300 civilian men, some of them suspected fighters, summarily executed in that period. Malian troops and foreign soldiers descended on the busy market to target members of armed groups who had controlled the remote town for years. That ritual continued this year.īut on March 27 – one of those market days – military helicopters suddenly appeared in the sky. Ahead of the holy month of Ramadan every year, traders from neighbouring towns flock to the popular cattle market in the central Malian town of Moura.
0 kommentar(er)
