Day: April 8, 2022

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, known by its French acronym MINUSMA, has demanded the country’s military government grant it access to the village of Moura, where rights groups and witnesses say the Malian army and Russian mercenaries killed hundreds of civilians during an anti-terrorism operation in late March.

The top U.N. envoy in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, told the U.N. Security Council Thursday that Mali’s military government has so far denied the request.

Wane said in the statement MINUSMA was only allowed to fly over the site on April 3 and that it was “imperative” that authorities give access to the site, in line with its mandate.

In a press release Thursday, MINUSMA repeated “deep concern at the allegations of serious violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law” in Moura.

Mali’s army on April 1 claimed to have killed 203 “terrorists” during the late March operation.

However, Human Rights Watch, in a report Tuesday, cited witnesses saying Mali’s army and foreign fighters identified as Russians killed 300 civilians, some of them suspected Islamic fighters.

Bamako claims Russia sent military “instructors” to Mali to help with its fight against Islamist insurgents.

But European governments and the United States say the Russians are with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group of mercenaries, which U.N. experts accuse of numerous abuses, from Syria to the Central African Republic.

VOA spoke to a man, who for security reasons did not wish his name be used, who was detained with others in Moura for five days during the operation.

He said he witnessed “white soldiers” who spoke neither French nor English sorting men into groups.

He said he then saw Malian armed forces execute about 12 to 15 of the men.

Moura residents told VOA that while some extremists were likely among those killed, the vast majority were innocent villagers.

Mali’s military tribunal has said it is investigating the events in Moura.

The U.N. mission in Mali in past investigations has found that civilians are often wrongly targeted as militants.

MINUSMA investigators a year ago found that a French airstrike on the central village of Bounty, Mali, killed 19 people – 16 of them civilians.

Source: Voice of America

The United States expressed concern Friday about reports of ethnically motivated atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

“We note with the utmost alarm that thousands of Ethiopians of Tigrayan ethnicity reportedly continue to be detained arbitrarily in life-threatening conditions in western Tigray,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

He said the United States was “deeply troubled” by the recent findings of a joint report by two leading human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which had found the violence in the region amounted to ethnic cleansing.

The report chronicles abuse by forces from the Amhara region, aided by government troops and militia groups. It said hundreds of civilians in western Tigray had been forced from their homes through threats, sexual violence, denial of aid and unlawful killings.

It also found evidence of deaths in detention facilities across western Tigray and gang rape by security forces.

Researchers said they based their findings on interviews with more than 400 residents of western Tigray.

Ethiopia’s government, while saying it would carefully examine the report, also criticized it for being one-sided.

Began in 2020

The conflict in Tigray began in late 2020 between the Ethiopian federal government and a local military force, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and has since exploded into a civil war that has forced 2 million people from their homes. Ethnic tensions between the region’s Amhara and Tigray communities have spanned decades.

The United States urged the immediate release of people detained arbitrarily in western Tigray and demanded international monitors be granted access to all detention facilities, according to Price.

It is the U.S. position that there be “credible investigations into and accountability for atrocities committed by any party to the conflict,” Price said.

Aid agencies have struggled to gain access to the millions in need of humanitarian assistance in Tigray because of restrictions by the government and militia groups.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners have not been able to move any further aid into Tigray by road since April 2, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Friday. The April convoy’s arrival was the first time U.N. supplies had entered Tigray by road since mid-December, he added.

Dujarric said food had reached only 1.2 million out of a target of 5.2 million people who should be receiving food aid in the region every six weeks.

Source: Voice of America

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Russia suspended from UN Human Rights Council over war

In a rare move, the U.N. General Assembly voted 93-24 on Thursday to suspend Russia’s membership on the U.N. Human Rights Council over Moscow’s “gross and systematic violations of human rights” and violations of international law committed against Ukraine. Russia said after the vote that it was withdrawing from the body on its own. Its three-year term was due to expire December 31, 2023.

Russia Suspended from UN Human Rights Body

VOA spoke to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield right after the vote. Watch the full interview here:

Ukrainian president scolds UN Security Council for inaction

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admonished the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday for its inaction in stopping Russia’s war against his country and called for Moscow to face accountability for crimes it has carried out there. “We are dealing with a state that is turning the U.N. Security Council veto into the right to die,” Zelenskyy said of Russia, which has used its veto to block any action in the council.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Chides UN Security Council for Lack of Action

UN gathering evidence of possible war crimes in Bucha

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday that it was gathering evidence of possible war crimes committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Shocking images of civilians lying dead on the town’s streets emerged after Russia troops withdrew from the area last weekend. Under international law, the deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime.

UN Rights Office Gathering Evidence of Possible War Crimes in Bucha, Ukraine

UN seeks access to Mali massacre site

The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday he welcomed the Malian authorities’ opening of an investigation into an alleged massacre of hundreds of civilians by government troops and suspected Russian mercenaries in the village of Moura in late March, but that the U.N. mission, MINUSMA, must also have access to the site. Human rights groups have called for an independent investigation.

Rights Groups Call for Investigation into Mali Killings

In brief

— The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it had successfully led a convoy of buses and private cars carrying more than 500 people who fled from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol to the safer location of Zaporizhzhia. Thousands more civilians remain trapped in Mariupol. The mayor said this week that at least 5,000 civilians had been killed during the Russian siege of the city.

— The United Nations warned Friday that as many as 6 million Somalis could face the risk of famine if the rainy season failed as expected and global food prices continued to rise. Three poor consecutive rainy seasons have deepened the country’s drought, plunging millions of people to crisis levels of food insecurity.

— U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed news Wednesday that a convoy carrying food aid and fuel had reached northern Ethiopia’s Tigray and Afar regions following the declaration of a humanitarian truce. But on Friday, the U.N. said it had not been able to get any further aid into Tigray. The International Committee of the Red Cross also was able to get a convoy carrying medical assistance, food and water treatment supplies into Afar last Saturday. It was the group’s first road convoy to reach the region in six months.

— The World Health Organization said Thursday that the number of COVID-19 cases in Africa could be 97% higher than confirmed reported cases. WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said two-thirds of Africans might have been infected. WHO has confirmed 11.6 million cases of COVID-19 on the continent, including more than 250,000 deaths. The new data suggests the actual numbers are much higher.

Some good news

The first nationwide truce in Yemen in six years went into effect on Saturday and appeared to be largely holding. U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg said Thursday that there had been a “significant reduction of violence,” but pockets of fighting continued, particularly around the contested city of Marib. The Yemeni government also released several fuel ships to dock in Houthi-held Hodeida port, which will help ease fuel shortages. Preparations were also underway for the first commercial flight to take off from Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport. The truce can be renewed beyond the initial two-month period if parties agree.

Quote of note

“Ukraine needs peace. We need peace. Europe needs peace. The world needs peace.”

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appealing to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to stop the war in his country

Source: Voice of America