Mali Criticizes ECOWAS Following Burkina Faso Army Massacre Allegations

The military administration of Mali has retaliated against the head of the Economic Community of West African States for describing an April massacre in Burkina Faso, a neighboring country, as a form of genocide.

According to the military chief of Burkina Faso, insurgents who seized military hardware may be to blame.

The government of Mali refuted the chairman of the West African bloc’s description of civilian fatalities as “genocide” in a statement broadcast on public television ORTM on Thursday.

In a tweet posted on April 27, Umaro Sissoco Embalo, the president of Guinea-Bissau, used the phrase to denounce the alleged mass murder of over 100 civilians on April 20 by Burkina Faso’s army.

The same day, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) issued a statement in which it was said that the International Criminal Court might define the targeting of civilians as genocide.

The response from the Malian military administration was read by an ORTM broadcaster. According to the statement, the ECOWAS chairman declared the occurrence to be genocide without any supporting evidence, and Embalo had forced his agenda on the committee.

In addition, the government claimed that Mali’s “desperate attempts to exploit human rights in order to accuse the authorities” reminded it of the claims against Burkina Faso’s army.

In a televised briefing on April 29, survivors of the massacre in Karma, Burkina Faso, blamed the army for the attack that claimed the lives of more than 100 civilians.

According to Human Rights Watch, the atrocity claimed the lives of 156 people.

Captain Ibrahim Traore, the head of Burkina Faso’s military, blamed the Islamist extremists they have been battling on Thursday. He claimed on state television that RTB militants had attacked and taken control of military hardware.

In the broadcast report, Traore stated that it was vital to wait on the findings of an investigation and that the military and security forces should not be quickly implicated.

Aiming to lower the morale of the defense and security personnel, Traore questioned the motivation behind the claims.

According to Traore, Burkina Faso has forced to turn to nations like Russia because many other nations won’t supply it the weaponry it needs to combat the terrorists.

But he added that his nation has numerous allies. Despite the fact that its forces had departed the nation, France has an embassy there, so he included it. Traore mentioned that Burkina Faso has strategic allies as well and named Russia as one of them.

Rights organizations have accused the Mali army of killing civilians and collaborating with Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group.

300 civilians were allegedly massacred in central Mali in April 2022, according to reports from Human Rights Watch, multiple media agencies, and Malian and Wagner forces.

The Mali military refuted the claim, said it cooperated with Russian “instructors,” and claimed it had killed over 200 “terrorists” in the incident.

Concerns have been expressed by detractors that Burkina Faso would also work with the Wagner Group, which has been implicated in human rights violations in other nations like the Central African Republic and Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.

Since a coup in 2020, the military has controlled Mali. In 2022, the military in Burkina Faso took over the presidency.

During a visit to Mali in February, the prime minister of Burkina Faso recommended the two nations join a federation to increase their economic might.

Due to the regional bloc’s sanctions regarding the coups and their delay of a return to elections, tensions between ECOWAS, Burkina Faso, and Mali increased significantly.

After military authorities accepted a transition period and a schedule for elections, some sanctions were withdrawn.

Individual consequences, however, still apply to military personnel. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea, which experienced a coup in 2021, are all expelled from ECOWAS and the African Union until constitutional authority is restored.

As one step toward elections next year, Mali’s military administration said on Friday that it would hold a referendum on a new constitution on June 18.

Information from Agence France-Presse is included in this report.