In Central Mali, Civilian Populations Are Caught Between Terrorism and Counterterrorism Fact-finding Mission Report November 2018 / N° 727a November Cover Photo: Screen capture from a propaganda video of the Support Group to Islam and Muslims (GSIM or JNIM – Jamā’at Nusrat. al-Islām Wa-l-Muslimīn in Arabic) showing jihadist fighters on motorcycles, in Central Mali, September 2018. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACRONYMS 4 MAP OF MALI 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 METHODOLOGY 13 I. CENTRAL MALI: AN EXPLOSIVE SITUATION 19 A. An area of ancient rivalries 19 B. … left to fend for itself in 2012… 23 C. … disrupted by the return of the State beginning in 2013… 24 D. … targeted by jihadists as an area to “win” 25 E. … has become the epicentre of violence in Mali today 29 II. SERIOUS ABUSES BY ALL PARTIES 35 A. By Koufa’s men 35 1. An increasingly pronounced presence 35 2. A loosely structured organisation 36 3. A brutal administration 36 4. Serious abuses 37 Sexual violence: an often-underestimated occurrence 41 5. Men of Katiba Macina get involved in inter-communal violence 45 “We were told that if we left, we would become enemies” 46 B. By armed militias 50 1. A profusion of disparate militias… 50 2. … supported by the State? 51 C. By the Malian Armed Forces 55 1. Timid return of the military 55 2. Summary executions 57 3. Cases of torture and illegal detentions 62 III. WAR CRIMES REQUIRING A JUDICIAL RESPONSE THAT MEETS EXPECTATIONS 67 A. How to define the crimes committed in the centre of Mali? 67 1. War crimes committed by jihadists and Malian armed forces 68 2. Serious human rights violations by community militias 69 B. Strengthening the national judicial response to the crimes in the Malian crisis 70 1. What is the situation with the proceedings from the 2012-2013 crisis? 70 2. A Specialised Judicial Unit to enable the most serious crimes to be prosecuted 71 3. Protecting Victims and Witnesses 73 C. Do not heed the siren calls for impunity 73 CONCLUSION: CHANGING APPROACH TO RESTORE PEACE IN CENTRAL MALI 77 RECOMMENDATIONS 83 ANNEX 90 ACRONYMS ACHPR African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Al-Mourabitoun The Almoravids; also known as Al-Mourabitoun-Al-Qaeda for Jihad in West Africa, and later as Al-Mourabitoun-Al-Qaeda for Jihad in Africa AMDH Malian Association for Human Rights AQIM Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb AU African Union DNA Dan Nan Ambassagou, Dogon Militia El-Mouaguiine Biddam Signatories in Blood or Those Who Sign in Blood FAMa Forces armées maliennes (Malian Armed Forces) FIDH Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (International Federation for Human Rights) GSIM or JNIM Support Group to Islam and Muslims / Jamaat Nosrat al-Islam wal-Mouslimin ICC International Criminal Court ICG International Crisis Group MINUSMA United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali MISMA International support mission to Mali MOJWA Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa MNLA National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad MST Maladie sexuellement transmissible NIEC National Independent Electoral Commission OIF International Organisation of la Francophonie ONHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights SSA Alliance for the Salvation of the Sahel, Fulani Militia UNHCR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNSC United Nations Security Council 4 FIDH/AMDH – In Central Mali, Civilian Populations Are Caught Between Terrorism and Counterterrorism MAP OF MALI Credit: United Nations. Circled in black, Mopti and Ségou regions in Central Mali, which is the area covered in this report. FIDH/AMDH – In Central Mali, Civilian Populations Are Caught Between Terrorism and Counterterrorism 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the wake of the re-election of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK), the litany of attacks and crimes in Central Mali reminds us that in this region, people are caught between terrorism and counterterrorism. Since early 2018, the region – perhaps the most strategic and multi-ethnic in Mali – has been the scene of an armed conflict led by the jihadists of Amadou Diallo, aka Koufa,1 community militias and security forces. Civilian populations are the main targets and the primary victims of the myriad armed actors fighting for control of these territories. Thishidden conflict in the confines of the inaccessible areas of the Niger River Delta is unfolding behind closed doors, sheltered from national and international public opinion. It is also the region of Mali that had the lowest voter turnout in the presidential election of 2018.2 “Central Mali had never known such violence,” a person who knows the area well testified to FIDH and AMDH representatives who, between May and July 2018, conducted an investigation into the ongoing conflict in the area. Through nearly 120 interviews with victims, witnesses, former jihadists, community and association leaders, and local authorities, FIDH and AMDH conducted research into serious human rights violations and the alleged perpetrators thereof, as well as into the dynamics and triggers of the ongoing conflict in Central Mali. The current epicentre of violence in Mali Since early 2018, Central Mali has fallen prey to extremely serious violence. It accounts for about 40% of all attacks in Mali, making it currently the most dangerous area in the country. The asymmetric conflict has intensified and become more complex and, according to available figures, has created about 500 civilian casualties between January and August 2018 and caused the deaths of dozens of combatants during massacres; attacks or fights; assassinations; summary executions; torture; enforced disappearances; etc. Some villages have been burned down, others besieged and blockaded, and their inhabitants hunted down. More than 15,000 people have had to flee persecution, violence and sometimes fighting by several involved actors: the jihadists grouped together in this area within the Katiba Macina led by the preacher Amadou Koufa – a member of the nebulous jihadist Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which since March 2017 has been part of Iyad Al Ghaly’s Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM or JNIM); defence and security forces, primarily the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa), which conduct anti-terrorist operations; and local community militias, be they Dogon, Bambara or Fula, which prefer to call themselves self-defence groups in their attacked community. From April to June 2018 alone, at least 287 people were reportedly killed in communal violence; 91% of these were men.3 In May 2017, FIDH and AMDH had already counted at least 117 people dead and 87 injured in intercommunal clashes in Mopti and Ségou regions in 2016 and 2017.4 “These violent incidents were also 1. There are several stories about what his last name is. Some say it is Cissé; others, Sangare; others, Diallo. In this report he will be called Amadou Koufa. 2. Calculation made by AMDH and FIDH based on data provided by the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization. 3. - Report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, S / 2018/866, September 25th, 2018: https://minusma.unmissions.org/ sites/default/files/n1829039.pdf 4. See FIDH-AMDH: Mali: Terrorism and impunity shake up fragile peace deal, May 2017, p. 9. https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/note_ mali_mai_2017_en_web.pdf 6 FIDH/AMDH – In Central Mali, Civilian Populations Are Caught Between Terrorism and Counterterrorism accompanied by waves of displaced people fleeing the violence. There are reportedly about 10,000 internally displaced people in Central Mali so far,” AMDH and FIDH have already warned. The human cost of the crisis in Central Mali for the last two years would be at least 1,200 killed; hundreds injured; and probably almost 30,000 displaced and turned into refugees. The number of displaced people in Mali has risen sharply since the beginning of the year, reaching over 75,000 by the end of July. In Mopti alone, the number of IDPs has increased from 2,000 in April to 12,000 in July. In the Mopti Region, too, 972,000 people are in need of protection and humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations. It is the highest proportion of people in need in Mali.5 The AMDH and FIDH investigations reveal that all of the armed actors in the region have committed serious crimes, which can be described as crimes against humanity and war crimes against civilians, as well as serious violations of human rights, international humanitarian and human rights law. An explosive situation and serious human rights violations by all parties Amadou Koufa’s katiba: between terrorism, peasant insurrection and social revolt Since 2015, Central Mali has also been affected by jihadist fever. Led by a man from the region, the jihadist preacher Amadou Koufa, the insurgency has gained sufficient ground and intensity to plunge large areas of the Mopti and Segou regions, including Nampalari, Macina, Seno and the Hayre, into a deadly conflict of an intensity theretofore unknown in this area, even at the beginning of the Tuareg and jihadist insurrection of 2012-2013. In 2012, Central Mali, which marked the separation between the “north,” under the yoke of the jihadists, and the “south,” administered by the State, was not exposed to the same degree of violence, but its people have suffered the consequences in a very concrete way: desertion by the representatives of the State; proliferation of acts of banditry; deterioration of the economic situation; penetration by jihadist militants; and more. We then witnessed, almost as if behind closed doors, the trivialization of violence and the emergence of new local actors, most of them armed, including Katiba Macina, which conducted its first operation in January 2015. The man who heads the “bushmen” of Katiba Macina is no dark horse. Since at least 2008, Amadou Koufa has been a fellow traveller of Iyad Al Galy, the leader of JNIM, a new joint venture of AQIM in Mali and the Sahel, which brings together the main armed jihadist and terrorist groups present in Northern Mali (AQIM, Al Mourabitoun, Ansar Dine, and some MOJWA elements) with the exception of their “competitor,” the Islamic State of the Great Sahara (EIGS).