The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Tuesday released its investigation report on the Bounty airstrike of Jan. 3, 2021, and concluded that the airstrike led by the French anti-terror force Barkhane deployed in the region had targeted "mostly civilians during a wedding celebration", Trend reports citing Xinhua.
According to the report, MINUSMA confirmed "the holding of a wedding celebration which brought together more than 100 civilians at the site of the strike, including five armed persons, alleged members of the Katiba Serma."
MINUSMA said in its report that it had "gathered information to confirm that at least 22 people were killed by the Barkhane Force strike on January 3, 2021 in Bounty (central Mali)."
The MINUSMA investigation confirmed the deaths of 19 civilians following the airstrike carried out by the French Barkhane force which, according to the French Army, targeted "an armed terrorist group."
"The victims are all men aged 23 to 71, the majority of whom lived in the village of Bounty," MINUSMA said.
In a press release of the General Staff of French Army published on Jan. 7, 2021, cited in this report by MINUSMA, however, the French army indicated that "all the intelligence and real-time elements allowed to characterize and formally identify this group as belonging to a TAG (terrorist armed group)."
MINUSMA stressed that "international humanitarian law requires the formal identification of the target as a military objective, yet the presence of five Katiba Serma members among a group of men would not be sufficient to qualify the other participants in the gathering as members of an armed group without further information."
For the UN mission in Mali, this airstrike raises "significant concerns regarding respect for the principles of the conduct of hostilities," in particular the obligation to do everything practically possible to "verify that the targets are indeed military objectives."
At the end of the investigation, MINUSMA recommended that the Malian and French authorities, among others, to "investigate possible violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law."