Atrocities Against Civilians in Central Mali, 2019
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HUMAN “How Much More Blood RIGHTS Must Be Spilled?” WATCH Atrocities Against Civilians in Central Mali, 2019 “How Much More Blood Must Be Spilled?” Atrocities Against Civilians in Central Mali, 2019 Copyright © 2020 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-6231-38035 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org FEBRUARY 2020 ISBN: 978-1-6231-38035 “How Much More Blood Must Be Spilled?” Atrocities Against Civilians in Central Mali, 2019 Map .................................................................................................................................. i Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ................................................................................................................... 5 Background: The Conflict in Central Mali .......................................................................... 7 Communal Violence in Central Mali in 2019 .................................................................... 12 Abuses Against Peuhl Civilians and Communities ................................................................... 14 Alleged Perpetrators ......................................................................................................... 16 January 2019 Attack on Koulogon-Peuhl ............................................................................ 18 February 2019 attacks: Minima Maoude-Peuhl and Libe ................................................... 20 March 2019 attacks: Didia and Yolo .................................................................................. 21 March 2019 attack: Ogossagou ........................................................................................ 22 June and July 2019 attacks: Bare, Bogolo, Saran and Diayel .............................................. 30 November 2019 Attack: Peh .............................................................................................. 33 Executions, Abductions of Men from Public Transport Vehicles ......................................... 34 Abuses Against Dogon Civilians and Communities .................................................................. 36 Alleged Perpetrators ......................................................................................................... 37 December 2018, and March and May 2019 Attacks: Derou-Na, Kérékéré and Ama-Koro ..... 38 June 2019 attack: Sobane-Da ............................................................................................ 39 July 2019 attack: Sangha .................................................................................................. 43 November 2019 attack: Near Madougou ........................................................................... 44 Blockades, Ultimatums and Burning of Dogon Villages ..................................................... 44 Alleged Retaliatory Killings .............................................................................................. 46 Violence by Armed Islamist Groups in Mopti Region ....................................................... 48 Alleged Perpetrators .............................................................................................................. 49 June 2019 Massacres in Yoro and Gangafani II ........................................................................ 50 Executions, Abductions of Men from Public Transport Vehicles ............................................... 54 Indiscriminate Attacks with Explosives ................................................................................... 57 Abductions and Killings of Local Leaders ............................................................................... 62 Justice for Victims of Crimes in Central Mali ................................................................... 65 Challenges Undermining Progress on Investigations by the Mopti Tribunal ............................. 66 Social Cohesion Efforts versus Justice .................................................................................... 69 Promises and Progress in 2019 ............................................................................................... 73 Role of the Specialized Unit to Combat Terrorism and Organized Crime ................................... 76 Need for Public Information and Promoting Justice .................................................................. 79 International Support to the Malian Judiciary and Specialized Judicial Unit .................... 82 Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 86 To the Malian Government ..................................................................................................... 86 To the Malian Judiciary .......................................................................................................... 86 To the Malian Security Forces .................................................................................................. 87 To the Mopti Region Prosecutor and Prosecutor for the Specialized Judicial Unit against Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime ......................................................................... 87 To Ethnic Militias and Armed Islamist Groups Operating in Central Mali .................................. 88 To the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court .............................................................. 88 To the African Union .............................................................................................................. 88 To Mali’s International Partners (European Union, United Nations, France, United States and other foreign partners) ........................................................................................................... 89 Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................... 90 My husband was murdered. The house I raised my children in was burned. My family has been torn apart. Why doesn’t the Malian state put the armed men who did this in jail so they can’t hurt anyone else? Honestly, how much more blood must be spilled?” Victim, Bankass Cercle, July 2019 “People from all ethnic groups and the jihadists too have learned they can kill and burn and destroy without consequence. It is impunity driving the violence in Mali more than anything else.” Elder, Mopti Region, September 2019 Map i Summary Armed groups in central Mali killed hundreds of civilians in 2019, amounting to the deadliest year for civilians since Mali’s political and military crisis erupted in 2012. Central Mail, notably Mopti region, is the epicenter of the violence, where armed Islamists and ethnic self-defense groups massacred people in their villages, gunned them down as they fled, and pulled men from public transportation vehicles to be executed based on their ethnicity. Many people unable to escape armed attacks were burned alive in their homes while others were blown up by explosive devices. Violence in central Mali has been escalating steadily since 2015, when armed Islamist groups largely allied to the militant Islamist group Al Qaeda began moving from northern into central Mali. Since then, they have continued to attack army, police and gendarme posts, commit atrocities against civilians, and enflame pre-existing communal tensions. Islamist armed groups have concentrated their recruitment efforts on the pastoralist Peuhl by exploiting their grievances with the state and other ethnic groups. Recruitment from the Peuhl community inflamed tensions within the agrarian Bambara, Dogon, and Tellem communities, who – in the face of inadequate security from the Malian state – formed self- defense groups to protect their communities. The Peuhl also formed similar self-defense groups in response to these tensions. This report documents dozens of attacks allegedly by ethnic militias and armed Islamist groups in central Mali from January through November 2019, during which at least 456 civilians were killed, and hundreds wounded. The attacks documented took place in more than 50 hamlets, villages and towns in Mopti region, the majority in areas along Mali’s border with Burkina Faso. Civilians were largely the targets of the attacks, including several that appeared well-planned and organized. Human Rights Watch believes the total number of civilians killed in communal and armed Islamist attacks in central Mali in 2019 is much higher than those documented in this report given the relentless “tit-for-tat” retaliation in often-isolated areas. During these 1 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | FEBRUARY 2020 attacks, in which there were often no witnesses, people were