25 bodies found after army sweep in volatile Mali region

TWENTY-FIVE bodies were found in central Mali after the army carried out a sweep in the unstable region, sources said yesterday, adding to concern about abuse by security forces in their fight against jihadists.

An NGO named Kisal, campaigning for the human rights of pastoral communities, said 25 bodies had been found in three mass graves.

It provided 18 names of people who, it said, had been killed.

The grim discovery was made after 25 people from the Fulani ethnic group, who are predominantly herders, were picked up last week by the army in the localities of Kobaka and Nantaka, Kisal said.

Separately, Oumar Diallo, of the Fulani association Tabital Pulaaku, said in the main regional town, Mopti, that the first grave had seven bodies, the second 13 and the third five.

Central Mali is a vast area where the state is near-absent and jihadists, blamed for exacerbating the dispute, roam with little constraint.

The armed forces are facing increasing accusations of arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killings in their fight against the insurgents.

A source at the defence ministry said an inquiry had been opened but denied “these accusations of summary executions”.

A ministry spokesman also denied any abuse.

“The zone is dangerous,” he said. “Terrorists and unidentified armed men” had been in the area.

On May 19, the army said three Malian soldiers and 12 terrorists were killed in fighting at an army camp near the border with Burkina Faso.

But locals alleged that the dead were all civilians and the army later put out a new statement that spoke of 12 people killed.

A resident of Nantaka said that troops arrested every person they came across as soon as they arrived in the village.

“They took their cellphones and identity cards.

“Afterwards, people who were [ethnic] Songhai were released, but all the Fulani were kept behind,” he said.

Mopti region governor General Sidi Alassane Toure declined to comment.

“An army unit is in the area. I am awaiting its return to find out the situation,” he said.

Tensions and violence have intensified in the Mopti area over the past three years, featuring clashes between Fulani herdsmen and sedentary farmers from other ethnic groups who accuse the pastoralists of colluding with jihadists.