Mali rejects UN report on alleged execution of 500 villagers by troops - Facts or propaganda

Hello Deep Dives platform! It's just obvious that violence in Africa is increasing and escalating everyday. In West Africa, the current waves of insurgency and rebellion ongoing the subcontinent is a contagion effects from the Malian rebellion.

Mali for over a decade has been a hub of human rights abuses and crimes against humanity have been committed by both the Malian military and the insurgents.

These human rights abuses against innocent Mali citizens warranted the UN Office of Human Rights to investigate the root and immediate causes of the abuses and it has attributed that it was caused by the military and partly the insurgents.

Mali's interim military government has rejected a United Nations human rights office report on the alleged execution of at least 500 people by Malian soldiers and unidentified foreign fighters during an operation last year.

The ruling junta was responding to a report released on Friday after a months-long investigation into what rights groups described as the worst atrocity in a 10-year conflict between Islamist groups and the army.

Government spokesmen Maiga described the UN report as fictitious narrative that wants to dent his government. Although, we can't say that the Malian military have not been involved in human rights abuses most especially, sexual harassment of girls and women.

The government spokesman said that the military raided a commumity and killed Islamist militant that have been disturbing the country. Meanwhile, the UN report said that the military that dropped and started shooting innocent citizens who were fleeing from the village.

Maiga said a state investigation into possible human rights violations during the operation was still ongoing, but repeated previous comments that Islamist fighters were killed rather than civilians.

"No civilian from Moura lost their life during the military operation. Among the dead, there were only terrorist fighters and all those arrested were handed over to the gendarmerie," he said, stressing the authorities' commitment to the protection of human rights.

The U.N. report was based on interviews with victims and witnesses in the West African country, as well as forensic and satellite imagery. Malian authorities denied requests by the U.N. fact-finding team to access the village of Moura itself, it said.

Maiga said the authorities had opened a judicial inquiry against the fact-finding mission for allegedly not having sought permission to take satellite photos of Moura, which amounts to "a clandestine manoeuvre against the national security of Mali."