Nineteen “terrorists” and three armed groups have been eliminated by the Malian armed forces since March 22 during operations against jihadists, according to a statement from the General Staff issued in Bamako.
In total, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) announced “the neutralization of four terrorists in the Niono area” in the center of the country, as well as the elimination of “three GATs” (“armed terrorist groups”) in the Baoulé forest and “15 terrorists” in the Manfouné, Vanekui and Mandiakui sectors in the south.
This count is in addition to the “203 fighters” of “armed terrorist groups” that the FAMa previously announced they had killed during a “large-scale” operation in late March in the Moura area (center), for which witnesses interviewed by the press or the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) speak instead of a large-scale massacre of civilians (300 according to HRW) committed by Malian soldiers and foreign fighters.
Governed by a military junta since August 2020, Mali has been in turmoil since 2012. The jihadist spread from the north to the center and into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. According to several reports by the United Nations Mission in Mali (Minusma), nearly 600 civilians were killed in the country in 2021 in violence blamed mainly on jihadist groups, but also on self-defense militias and armed forces.
