Mali wedding airstrike

Deaths22 (UN)InjuredUnknownVictimsciviliansPerpetrators French Air and Space Force

On 3 January 2021, the French Armed Forces carried out an airstrike targeting a wedding claiming that terrorists were killed without any collateral damage. A UN report later revealed that out of the 22 people killed, 19 were civilians.^[1]

Background

On 2 January 2021, in coordination with the militaries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger the French military launched Operation Eclipse in and around the city of Boni.^[2]

The Airstrike

On 3 January 2021, Islamic extremists confronted a wedding in the village of Bounti in Mopti Region, central Mali, ordering the attendees to separate by gender. A fighter jet airstrike then killed 22 people, including children, according to witnesses and local officials including the mayor.^[3][4][5][6]

Residents also said a helicopter opened fire on the ceremony.^[7] The French Armed Forces said they had killed "dozens" of militant Islamists in Hombori, a few kilometers away, on that day, but that a connection between the strike and a wedding party "does not correspond to information collected prior to the airstrike".^[3][4][5]

On 30 March 2021, the MINUSMA United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali concluded that the strike killed 19 unarmed civilians and three armed men.^[8] They said the strike was on a wedding attended by about 100 civilians and five armed men, presumably members of a group affiliated with al-Qaeda. ^[8]

The French military maintains its version of events, and called the UN report "biased".^{[9][10][failed verification]}

References

1. ^ Maclean, Ruth (30 March 2021). "A Wedding, an Airstrike, and Outrage at the French Military". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
2. ^ "Mali: with French soldiers from Operation Eclipse chasing jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda". Le Monde. 4 February 2021. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
3. ^ ^{a b} "Witnesses say 20 are killed in an airstrike in central Mali during a wedding party". CTV News. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
4. ^ ^{a b} "Wedding guests killed in Mali airstrike, local sources say". The Guardian. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
5. ^ ^{a b} "Unexplained deadly airstrike at Mali wedding raises questions over French involvement". The Telegraph. 6 January 2021.
6. ^ Freudenthal, Emmanuel; Gebauer, Matthias; Huon, Patricia; Nsaibia, Héni; Popp, Maximilian P; Sandberg, Britta; van der Weide, Youri (9 June 2021). ""People Collected Severed Arms, Legs and Heads"". Spiegel. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
7. ^ "Sahel conflict: France rejects reports of airstrike on Mali wedding". BBC. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
8. ^ ^{a b} "French air attack in Mali killed 19 unarmed civilians, UN says". Al Jazeera. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
9. ^ Thomas-Johnson, Amandla. "'Stop lying': Malians call for justice over French air strike". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
10. ^ "Mali/France: Investigate French Airstrike Killing 19". Human Rights Watch. 21 January 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.