French Raid in Mali Might Violate Humanitarian Law, UN Says

(Bloomberg) -- A French air strike that killed 22 people including civilians in Mali could be “incompatible with international humanitarian law,” according to a United Nations report.

The Jan. 3 raid near a village in the central Mopti region led to the deaths of 19 civilians and three suspected members of an armed group, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali said Tuesday following an investigation into the incident. France has reservations about the report and the attack targeted “members of an armed terrorist group,” the nation’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The incident sparked debate in Mali, with local officials and some non-governmental organizations claiming that civilians attending a wedding party had been killed in the strike. The UN said it had confirmed “a wedding celebration, which brought together around 100 civilians at the site of the strike.”

France’s army chief of staff had rejected the allegations as “disinformation” in a statement on Jan. 7, saying there was no evidence of a festive gathering at the time of the raid and that it didn’t cause any “collateral damage.”

The strike was conducted a few days after militants killed five French soldiers in two separate attacks in the area, one of the highest death tolls inflicted in combat on France’s counter-insurgency operation in years. Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron cautioned against a rapid withdrawal of the 5,100-strong force fighting militants in West Africa’s Sahel region despite pressure in France to scale back its presence.

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