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STORY: OHCHR / MALI COMMUNITY ATTACKS
TRT: 03:14
SOURCE: OHCHR / MINUSMA
RESTRICTION: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 JULY 2018, MOPTI, MALI / FILE
FILE – MINUSMA - MOPTI, MALI
1. Med shot, Mopti
17 JULY 2018, MOPTI, MALI
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Guillaume Ngefa, Director of Human Rights and Protection Division, UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA):
“We have received information, we have sent missions to the field, which concluded that communities have established and created militia, and then these militias are responsible for serious abuses against members of some communities.”
3. Cutaway, Ngefa
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Guillaume Ngefa, Director of Human Rights and Protection Division, UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA):
“From the beginning of the year, 289 civilians have been killed as a result of those attacks, targeted attacks, against some members of the community.”
FILE – MINUSMA - MOPTI, MALI
5. Med shot, Human Rights officer with community leaders
6. Close up, faces
7. Wide shot, village
17 JULY 2018, MOPTI, MALI
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Guillaume Ngefa, Director of Human Rights and Protection Division, UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA):
“We try to address this frequency and surge in violence, not only by deploying missions, field missions, to shed light into these events, but mostly to publish the findings of these reports. And the findings are shared with the authorities. The mission has been pushing the government to open criminal investigations to ensure that those militias - that are community based - are held responsible.”
FILE – MINUSMA - MOPTI, MALI
9. Med shot, Human Rights director with military official
17 JULY 2018, MOPTI, MALI
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Guillaume Ngefa, Director of Human Rights and Protection Division, UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA):
“The modus operandi, of those committing these serious abuses, has changed. Mostly, we have traditional hunters, the Dozos, they are now using more sophisticated arms to conduct the attacks.”
FILE – MINUSMA - MOPTI, MALI
11. Med shot, village
17 JULY 2018, MOPTI, MALI
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Guillaume Ngefa, Director of Human Rights and Protection Division, UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA):
“We are also witnessing, at the same time, Peulh community that has also created a militia which is also responsible for targeted killings against Dogon and Bambara as well. The main consequences of this violence across intercommunal lines is that many people have fled.”
FILE – MINUSMA - MOPTI, MALI
13. Aerial shot, UN patrol vehicles in Mopti
The UN Human Rights Office is concerned about a spike in intercommunal violence in Mali which has led to serious human rights abuses by militia groups. The head of the UN Human Rights and Protection Division in Mali, Guillaume Ngefa, said there are targeted killings between communities.
Ngefa who is also the representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Mali said, “We have received information, we have sent missions to the field, which concluded that communities have established and created militia and the militia are responsible for serious abuses against members of some communities.”
According to the UN Human Rights Office in Mali, there is an alarming escalation of attacks in the Mopti region, northeast of the capital Bamako, where the violence is allegedly carried out by Dozos (traditional hunters) and elements of Dogon militias against villages - or parts of villages occupied primarily by members of the Fulani (Peulh) community.
The Human Rights and Protection Division of MINUSMA notes that the abuses are increasingly targeting members of the Fulani (Peulh) community.
More than 289 people have been killed since the beginning of the year and hundreds more have fled the region. But there are more concerns that the communities have given rise to militia groups that are carrying out the attacks.
Ngefa pointed out, “We are also witnessing, at the same time, Peulh community that has also created a militia which is also responsible for targeted killings against Dogon and Bambara as well. The main consequence of this violence across intercommunal lines is that many people have fled.”
Conflicts over land usage and natural resources pre-date the current crisis. These have traditionally arisen between farmers who are generally members of the Dogon or Bambara communities, and herders who are generally members of the Fulani (Peulh) community, particularly during the harvest period prior to the onset of the rainy season in June.
Reports indicate that insecurity in Mali worsened as Islamist-armed groups allied to Al-Qaeda dramatically increased their attacks on government forces and United Nations peacekeepers. The peace process envisioned to end the 2012-2013 political-military crisis stalled in 2017.
Malians head to the polls on July 29 for a vote meant to draw a line under six years of political unrest.
