Letter from Mali: a plea for peace

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .

CPNN has received the following copy of a letter coming from Mali for the UN Secretary-General. It provides details for the report from Human Rights Watch about Mali government and mercenary atrocities committed on innocent civilians. (translation by CPNN)

In publishing this letter, we hope that it will be read by some in the military government of Mali, and that they will follow the example of the military governments in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger and turn to dialogue instead of military force to deal with the conflicts in their country. The rationale for dialogue is explained clearly by General Djibril Bassole.


The rational for dialogue explained by General Djibril Bassole

Open letter to the Secretary of the United Nations, New York, United States of America`

I will go straight to the facts to save time that seems to be lacking for the leaders of a world that is losing all its bearings.

On the day of January 2, 2025, a Toyota brand pickup going from Niono (Mali) to Mberra (Malian refugee camp in Mauritania) with a dozen civilians on board, the majority of whom were women and children, disappeared on a national road frequented by the Malian army and its Wagner auxiliaries. For a whole night and a day, the parents of the missing searched in vain for news.

The macabre discovery of their charred bodies hastily buried under branches and stones marked the beginning of an unprecedented tragedy since the FAMA and Wagner’s assassins have been spreading terror throughout northern Mali from Abeibara (Kidal region) in the East to the Mauritanian border in the West.

The vehicle was diverted from its route, time taken to identify the travelers and then to execute them summarily after raping the women, one of whom was pregnant for almost 6 months. The bodies were found between the town of Fatissouyou and Dioura in central Mali.

(article continued in right column)

(Click here for the original article in French.)

Question for this article:

Islamic extremism, how should it be opposed?

The new military governments in Africa: Are they promoting a culture of peace?

(article continued from left column)

This is indeed the signature of the Malian junta’s thugs and their fellow Wagner assassins, unlike the jihadists operating in Mali, who never kidnap children and women, let alone execute them. Mr. SG, it is high time that the institution you lead breaks its deafening silence on the tragedy and daily dramas experienced by the populations (Tuaregs, Moors and Fulani) in these areas including on the Mauritanian border, including Mauritanians since 2022.

The Tuaregs who were assassinated are neither terrorists, nor drug traffickers, nor rebels. The young humanitarian who was assassinated with his son (2.8 months) is the first cousin of the illustrious general leader of the Kel Ansar affiliated with Mali and the greatest defender of the Malian army and the putschist Goita. His wife carrying her second son in her womb is the daughter of a colonel major of the Malian gendarmerie well-known by the Malian military and security establishment.

One of the young people assassinated is the son of an important customs officer, an early companion of the putschists. The 10 people murdered belong to the Kel Ansar group or are affiliated with it. This is of course a targeting not only of the Tuareg but also of the Kel Ansar, a tribe that has always served the Malian state, that has never rebelled and has always refused to succumb to the sirens of fundamentalism. This brand of patriotism has never ceased to worry and to appear suspect in the eyes of the Malian state since its independence.

What is happening in Mali, in particular, in the north and center, amounts to genocide and a crime against humanity. Is human life in Gaza or Ukraine more valuable, more precious than that in Azawad, in Macina and on the Mauritanian border? Is it only people who are victims of Israel or Putin who have the right to speak out and denounce the highest authority of the international community? Can we not speak and comfort the weak not only in Palestine or Ukraine but around the World?

Mali is not a respectable State, it is condemnable. Please have the courage to condemn it and consider bringing it before the international courts that the United Nations have set up.

Mali is a failed and criminal State but it continues to receive support and backing from several Western countries. In the absence of sanctions and the removal of support, the peoples and communities who are suffering the hell of the felonious colonels in power in Bamako, can only consider all this support as complicity.

Stop the madness of a handful of felonious colonels and their relays, before the worst happens in the Sahelian sub-region. Mr. SG, it would soon be a question of threat to international peace and security (Chapter 7 UN statement).

You should forgive me, between shock and tragedy, I do not have the heart for polite expressions, which does not mean that I do not have the greatest regard for you and your title.

– – – – – –

If you wish to make a comment on this article, you may write to coordinator@cpnn-world.org with the title “Comment on (name of article)” and we will put your comment on line. Because of the flood of spam, we have discontinued the direct application of comments.