AIR STRIKES on a village in northern Mali near the Algerian border killed 21 civilians, including 11 children on Sunday, a spokesman for a coalition of Tuareg-majority pro-independence groups said.
If confirmed, the attack on the village of Tinzaouatine would mark the largest number of civilians killed by drones since the breakdown of a peace agreement between the country’s ruling military regime and armed pro-independence groups in northern Mali last year.
The Strategic Framework for the Defence of the People of Azawad is a coalition of Tuareg-majority groups fighting for the independence of northern Mali, which they call Azawad.
The air strikes targeted a pharmacy, then other strikes followed that targeted people gathering in the vicinity of the initial damage, the coalition said in a statement.
“The provisional toll of these criminal strikes stands at 21 civilians killed, including 11 children and the pharmacy manager, dozens wounded and enormous material damage,” said the statement signed by Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, spokesman for the rebel coalition present in the village.
Mali’s armed forces confirmed the strikes during a statement broadcast on national television.
The statement said: “The general staff of the armed forces confirms air strikes in the Tinzaouatine sector on the morning of August 25 2024. These precision strikes targeted terrorists.”
The strikes come a few weeks after the Malian army and mercenaries from the Russia-based Wagner Group were defeated by Tuareg rebels and fighters from the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, an al-Qaida-linked group.
Malian forces and Wagner mercenaries appear to lack a strong presence on the ground in the Kidal region. This has led a number of military analysts to predict much more use of air attacks against the pro-independence groups.
Rida Lyammouri, a senior fellow at the Policy Centre for the New South, a Moroccan think tank, added that recent defeats for Malian and Wagner forces could lead to more “air strikes, including against civilians,” in northern Mali.
