{"id":312,"date":"2020-06-30T10:32:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T10:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/?p=312"},"modified":"2020-06-30T10:38:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T10:38:37","slug":"in-central-mali-community-fighting-and-impunity-overwhelming-efforts-to-protect-civilians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/2020\/06\/30\/in-central-mali-community-fighting-and-impunity-overwhelming-efforts-to-protect-civilians\/","title":{"rendered":"In central Mali, community fighting and impunity, \u2018overwhelming\u2019 efforts to protect civilians"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Feeding an entrenched cycle of violence and reprisal, 580 civilians have been killed in Mali so far this year, as worsening security conditions and widespread impunity undermine efforts to protect people caught in intercommunal fighting, the UN Human Rights chief said on Friday. Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR<\/a>), said violent disputes between the Peulh and Dogon communities have risen in recent months, with community-based militias \u2013 initially formed to defend communities \u2013 becoming increasingly involved in attacks against others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Scenes from daily life in an IDP village in the Mopti area. , by MINUSMA<\/a>\/Marco Dormino<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

From 1 January to 21 June, 83 incidents of fighting across communal lines were documented in the restive central region of Mopti by the UN Stabilization Mission\u2019s (MINUSMA) Human Rights and Protection Division. Community-based militias from the Peulh community, who are primarily herders, were responsible for at least 71 of these incidents, leading to the deaths of 210 people. \u00a0Those from the Dogon community, who are mainly farmers and hunters, carried out 12 attacks, leaving at least 82 people dead. People were also abducted, forced to join community-based militias or displaced.<\/p>\n

Armed groups expand to central regions<\/h3>\n

These attacks across community lines have also been fuelled and instrumentalized by militant Islamist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, and the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, who have bolstered their presence<\/a> in Mali\u2019s central regions following push back in the north by national and international armed forces. These groups are responsible for 105 human rights abuses that have occurred in Mopti, including 67 killings, since the start of 2020. As well, members of the Malian Defence and Security Forces sent to the area to counter such violence, have themselves been involved in human rights violations, mostly targeting members of the Peulh community.<\/p>\n

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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet (file)., by UN Photo\/Laura Jarriel<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Human Rights and Protection Division documented 230 extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions attributed to members of Mali\u2019s security forces in the central regions of Mopti and S\u00e9gou. \u00a0Forty-seven of these killings – which occurred in five incidents in March 2020 – are attributed to these forces presumably acting under the command of the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel). Instances of enforced disappearances, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment have also been documented.<\/p>\n

\u2018Overwhelming impunity\u2019<\/h3>\n

\u201cAll these violations and abuses have been perpetrated in a context of overwhelming impunity,\u201d said Bachelet. \u00a0The lack of accountability is eroding confidence in State institutions. \u201cThe vicious cycle of retaliatory attacks between Dogon and Peulh militias, coupled with the violations and abuses committed by Malian Defence and Security Forces and armed groups, has created a situation of chronic insecurity for the civilian population, who are not able to count on the protection of the Malian forces\u201d, she asserted. \u00a0\u201cThis needs to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bachelet called on national forces to restore State authority across the country, and on Malian authorities to establish \u201cprompt, thorough, impartial and independent\u201d investigations into all alleged human rights violations, and to ensure proper accountability processes are established.\u00a0 \u201cPeople need justice, redress and reparations,\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cThis is the only way to reverse this trend of continuing violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2020\/06\/1067292<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Feeding an entrenched cycle of violence and reprisal, 580 civilians have been killed in Mali so far this year, as worsening security conditions and widespread impunity undermine efforts to protect people caught in intercommunal fighting, the UN Human Rights chief said on Friday. Michelle Bachelet,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-peace-and-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apstaafrica.org\/peacekeepingthismonth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}