Bamako, MALI: A suicide bomber in a vehicle painted in UN colors attacked the Malian headquarters of an international anti-terror task force, the G5 Sahel, on Friday, killing two soldiers and a civilian, according to a security source and a local leader.
The building’s entrance wall was destroyed, with the force of the blast throwing the vehicle inside it, according to witnesses and pictures of the scene.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Support Group for Islam and Muslims, the main militant alliance in Africa’s Sahel region, claimed the attack in a telephone call to the Mauritanian news agency Al-Akhbar.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres condemned “the complex attack perpetrated against the G5-Sahel Joint Force’s Headquarters,” his spokesman said in a statement.
It was the first attack on the headquarters of the five-nation force, set up with the backing of France in 2017 to roll back militant insurgents and criminal groups in the vast, unstable Sahel region.
“Shortly after Friday prayers, a suicide bomber in a vehicle painted with UN colors blew up at the entrance to the G5 base in Sevare. It was a huge blast,” a military source in the G5 Sahel force said.
Two soldiers from the force and a civilian were killed, as well as two attackers, according to a source within the force and the governor of Mopti, the regional capital.
The Malian government later said that the two soldiers killed were members of its armed forces.
A previous toll of six people killed was revised down.
Governor Sidi Alassane Toure said there had been “confusion” in the morgue.
“We have arrested four suspects,” he said, adding that search operations would take all night.
Guterres, who visited the Sevare headquarters last month, highlighted security shortcomings on several of the force’s sites in Mali in a report published in May.
“Poor conditions on and around the site represent an important security threat, and are delaying the deployment of the remaining soldiers,” the report said.
Residents in Sevare, 600 kilometers (375 miles) northeast of the capital Bamako, hid inside their homes during Friday’s attack, according to Bouba Bathily, a trader who sheltered from the gunfire in his house.
A local orange seller, Haoussa Haidara, said “there was a huge blast” followed by shooting that lasted more than an hour.
The attack came three days before a meeting in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott between French President Emmanuel Macron and the heads of the G5 Sahel states to discuss progress made by the force.
The G5 Sahel aims to have a total of 5,000 troops from five nations — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, but has faced funding problems.
It operates alongside France’s 4,000 troops in the troubled “tri-border” area where Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet, and alongside the UN’s 12,000-strong MINUSMA peacekeeping operation in Mali.
France’s armed forces minister, Florence Parly, condemned the “cowardly attack” in a Twitter statement.
“Solidarity with our African partners with whom we will continue the fight against terrorism,” she said.
The G5 Sahel was scheduled to be fully mobilized by mid-2018, but its deployment has faced delays, equipment worries and accusations of human rights abuses.
On Tuesday, the UN said Malian soldiers within the force had “summarily” executed 12 civilians in a market in central Mali in May in retaliation for the death of a soldier.
Malian Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga said that the government had “taken the necessary measures” after the bloodshed, which he condemned.
France intervened militarily in Mali in 2013 to help government forces drive Al-Qaeda-linked militants out of the north.
But large tracts of the country remain lawless despite a peace accord signed with ethnic Tuareg leaders in mid-2015 aimed at isolating the militants. The violence has also spilled over into both Burkina Faso and Niger.
Earlier Friday, French military headquarters said troops from its Barkhane mission in Mali had killed or captured 15 militants on June 22 in a joint operation with local forces.
The clash took place in a woodland area of the Inabelbel region, southeast of Timbuktu, it said in a statement.
A group of about 20 militants were attacked using helicopters and jet fighter support after they were spotted by Malian commandos, it said.
Three dead in attack on Mali HQ of G5 Sahel anti-terror force
Three dead in attack on Mali HQ of G5 Sahel anti-terror force
- The building’s entrance wall was destroyed, with the force of the blast throwing the vehicle inside it, according to witnesses and pictures of the scene
- The G5 Sahel was scheduled to be fully mobilized by mid-2018, but its deployment has faced delays, equipment worries and accusations of human rights abuses
Russia committed ‘crimes against humanity’ in deporting Ukrainian children: UN inquiry
- The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred “thousands” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases
- “Four years on, 80 percent of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned,” it said
GENEVA: Moscow’s deportation and forcible transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia amounts to a crime against humanity, a United Nations team of investigators said Tuesday.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said it had collected evidence leading it to conclude that “Russian authorities have committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children.”
The probe was established by the UN Human Rights Council shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred “thousands” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases.
“Four years on, 80 percent of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned,” it said.
Moscow has failed to establish a system facilitating returns, and has instead focused on long-term placement of the children with families or institutions in Russia, while relatives were not informed of their fate.
The commission confirmed its previous finding that Russian authorities had unlawfully deported and transferred children — as a war crime — “and that they have unjustifiably delayed their repatriation, which is also a war crime.”
These measures “were not guided by the best interests of the child,” and have violated international law, the probe found.
- Putin cited -
It said the involvement of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “including through his direct authority over entities that have steered and executed this policy, has been visible from the outset.”
In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a war crimes arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of “unlawfully deporting” Ukrainian children.
The issue is highly sensitive in Ukraine and remains central to negotiations for a potential peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow.
According to Kyiv, nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly removed since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russia insists it has moved some Ukrainian children from their homes or orphanages to protect them from hostilities.
As for Russian trials in the context of its invasion of Ukraine, the commission found that Russian authorities have “systematically fabricated evidence” and “systematically violated a range of fair trial guarantees,” while judges “have not acted with independence and impartiality.”
- ‘Extreme violence’ -
The commission also probed the situation of nationals from 17 countries who were recruited — either voluntarily or through deception — to fight with Russian troops in Ukraine.
They included men from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkiye and Yemen.
“After training, usually lasting between one week and 30 days, they were forced to serve on frontlines in Ukraine, often assigned extremely dangerous duties,” the commission said in its report.
Commanders arbitrarily imposed “extreme violence” as punishment for refusing orders that meant almost certain death, with soldiers describing being treated like “cannon fodder,” sent on “meat assaults” without training or necessary equipment, and “forced to advance at all costs.”
“The evidence collected demonstrates abusive behavior, cruelty, humiliation, inhuman treatment, and a total disregard for human life and dignity, perpetrated with a sense of impunity,” the report said.
Regarding Ukraine, the report voiced concern about the overly broad definition and sometimes distorted interpretation of the crime of “collaboration.”
The commission also said reports regarding violent treatment of conscientious objectors during Ukrainian mobilization were “a source of concern.”
The report will be presented at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.
Moscow does not recognize the commission and does not answer its requests for access, information and meetings.
