Airstrikes Kill Many Civilians including Children in Mali

Several civilians, including children, were killed Tuesday, November 7, 2023, in strikes attributed to the Malian army in Kidal, a possible foreshadowing of the battle to come for this bastion of the Tuareg rebellion and a major sovereignty issue for the central state.

The Permanent Strategic Framework (CSP), an alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed groups, reported in a press release 14 deaths, including eight children gathered in front of a school and six notables, killed according to the CSP by Turkish-made drones from the Malian army.

Residents and witnesses, speaking mostly on condition of anonymity for their safety, spoke of six, seven or nine deaths, without having an overview of each of them.

“Six people including children were killed by airstrikes by the Malian army. In the hospital, we have wounded,” said a health worker. 

No reaction was initially obtained from the Malian authorities. The army indicated on social networks on Saturday that it had "neutralized" the day before with its air assets a certain number of targets which were preparing operations inside the camp recently evacuated by the UN mission (Minusma).

Tuesday's acts of war, the first murderers in Kidal itself since the Tuareg rebellion resumed hostilities with the State in August, confirm fears of a confrontation in which the several tens of thousands of inhabitants of the city, historic center of independence insurgencies and a crossroads on the road to Algeria, has been brewing for some time. 

A resident who worked for Minusma indicated that Tuesday's victims included residents who had gathered in front of the camp to collect equipment.

The CSP assured for its part that one of the drone strikes had hit a group of children in front of a school near the camp.

The CSP said it was asking the Turkish authorities “to review their policy of selling drones to the junta” and to the Russian paramilitary group Wagner with which it cooperates according to the CSP.

Minusma, whose numbers numbered around 15,000 soldiers and police and more than 180 members of whom were killed in hostile acts, is supposed to have left by December 31. Since July, it has withdrawn nearly 6,000 civilian and uniformed personnel from Mali.

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