The Washington Post reported on the 27th that French troops in Mali, West Africa, misunderstood guests attending a wedding as terrorists and killed 19 civilians.
The incident took place on the 3rd of this month at around 3 pm in the village of Bounty in Mobti, central Mali. The French military captured the men gathered through a drone. The French military judged them to be an Islamic crusade (jihadist) terrorist organization operating in central Mali, and launched two fighters and dropped three bombs. The French military issued a statement on the 7th and said, “It killed 30 terrorist gang members out of 40 adult men.”
However, it turned out that the actual targets attacked by the French army were civilians. Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international human rights organization, said on the 21st, “On the day of the air raid, a 25-year-old bridegroom and a 16-year-old bride had a wedding ceremony.” A 46-year-old teacher who attended the wedding told WP, “I heard the sound of a plane and then I heard a roar, and the surroundings quickly became a mess.”
Earlier, the French Ministry of Defense said, “There were no signs of marriage, no women, no children. There were only men, and we made a decision after sufficient fact verification.” HRW stressed that “the governments of both countries have an obligation to conduct a thorough and fair investigation of this raid.” More than 5,000 French troops have been stationed in West Africa since 2013 to block jihadists from entering Europe, most of them deployed in Mali. Reporter Shin Ah-hyung [email protected]Go to reporter page>
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