Several dozen people in Mali hold a rare protest against the army after massacre allegations
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Several dozen people, notably women and children, have demonstrated in the central Malian village of Diafarabé following allegations that the Malian army killed more than 20 people.
The protest happened on Wednesday, two days after the alleged massacre. Although allegations of Malian army killings are frequent in this part of West Africa, demonstrations have been rare since military rule and restrictions on freedom of expression were installed in Mali.
'The women are demonstrating their anger to denounce the alleged murder of 27 people by the Malian army last Monday,' said Diowro Diallo, president of the Fulani association Dental Wuwardé.
'The army arrested 28 men who were at the Diafrabé market to sell their animals," Diallo told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The soldiers crossed the river behind the village with the prisoners, but one escaped and returned to the village to report that the army had executed the others,'
Diafarabé, a predominantly Fulani ethnic village located in central Mali, is an area where JNIM, an Al Qaida-linked group, is active and regularly targets the Malian army with attacks.
The army said it has launched an inquiry.
'An investigation has been opened following these allegations, and we are waiting for its conclusion to determine what happened,' Malian army spokesman Col. Maj. Souleymane Dembélé said Thursday.
Last December, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Malian army and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing dozens of civilians and setting fire to at least 100 houses during military operations in central and northern Mali.
Human rights associations have regularly accused the Malian army of human rights violations since the beginning of the country's security and political crisis in 2012. In 2020, a group of military officers took advantage of the widespread discontent against democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to stage a coup and seize power.
Mali's military government cut military cooperation with France and the European Union, which had troops in Mali as part of the fight against extremism, and forged new security ties with Russia instead. However, analysts say that the security situation has worsened.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
9 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Takeaways from New Jersey's primaries: GOP nominee's win is also a victory for Trump
NORTH BERGEN, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey primary voters have chosen their GOP nominee — and President Donald Trump notched a win in his endorsement belt — in one of two high-stakes governor's races being held this year. While officials from both parties say November's general election will hinge on local, pocketbook issues, the outcome will also be closely watched as a harbinger of how both parties might fare in next year's midterm elections, and as a test of both Democratic enthusiasm and how the GOP fares without Trump on the ballot. Here are takeaways from Tuesday's primary results: Trump notches a decisive win 2025's off-year elections have been rough for Republicans and Trump. The president went all in on Wisconsin's state Supreme Court race this spring, backing conservative Brad Schimel, even as polls showed Schimel lagging his Democratic-backed rival. Schimel went on to lose by a whopping 10 points, even after billionaire Elon Musk and groups he backed poured $21 million into the race. This time, Trump's chosen candidate, Republican front-runner Jack Ciattarelli, easily won the nomination. 'Jack Ciattarelli is a WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement – HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN,' Trump wrote in a social media post announcing his endorsement last month. 'MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, ELECT JACK CIATTARELLI!' After losing in 2021 to term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy by the slimmest of margins, Ciattarelli is hoping his third try for the office will be the charm. The endorsement was a blow, in particular, to Ciattarelli rival Bill Spadea, a conservative radio host who ran by vowing to enthusiastically back the president's agenda. Ciattarelli, he complained in one ad, 'did more than disagree with the president. He disrespected him. Me? I've been a supporter of President Trump since he came down the escalator.' He said voters should feel free to flout Trump's advice: 'I've disagreed with him in the past. It's ok for you to disagree with him now.' Trump alluded to the name dropping during a tele-rally he held on Ciattarelli's behalf. 'Other people are going around saying I endorsed them. That's not true,' he said. Another primary all about Trump Candidates on both sides of the aisle vowed to tackle pocketbook issues, from high property taxes to grocery prices, to housing and health care costs. But Trump loomed large. On the GOP side, most of the candidates professed their allegiances to the president. Ciattarelli said in ads that he would work with Trump and end New Jersey's status as a sanctuary state 'on Day One.' (Currently, the state's attorney general has directed local law enforcement not to assist federal agents in civil immigration matters.) He also pledged to direct his attorney general to end lawsuits filed against the Trump administration, including one challenging Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship. Democrats featured him heavily, too. In one ad, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill — who won the Democratic primary for New Jersey governor on Tuesday — featured an armada of pickup trucks waving giant Trump flags and warned that, 'Trump's coming for New Jersey with Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli.' 'We've gotta stop them,' it said. In another, she tells viewers, 'I know the world feels like it is on fire right now,' and vows to 'stand up to Trump and Musk with all I've got.' Past insults forgotten Back in 2015, Ciattarelli labeled then-candidate Trump a 'charlatan' who was unfit for the office of the presidency and an embarrassment to the nation. 'Instead of providing the kind of leadership that appeals to the better angels of our nature in calling us to meaningful and just action, Mr. Trump preys upon our worst instincts and fears,' he wrote. When Ciattarelli ran in 2021, he distanced himself from Trump, without the outward insults. Trump nonetheless complained about the treatment on Spadea's radio show last year, saying Ciattarelli 'made some very big mistakes' and would have won had he sought Trump's support. But like Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and so many others, past insults gave way to alliance. Trump offered his enthusiastic backing in a tele-rally, and in his endorsement, said that, 'after getting to know and understand MAGA,' Ciattarelli 'has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!).' A changing state November's presidential election offered warning signs for Democrats in the state. While Trump lost to Democrat Kamala Harris, he did so by only 6 points — a significantly smaller margin than in 2020, when President Joe Biden won by 16 points. 'New Jersey's ready to pop out of that blue horror show,' Trump said in the tele-rally held for Ciattarelli last week. Trump also made stunning gains in several longtime Democratic strongholds, including New Jersey's heavily Latino Passaic County. He carried the city of Passaic and significantly increased his support in Paterson, which is majority Latino and also has a large Muslim community. Indeed, 43% of Latino voters in the state supported Trump, up from 28% in 2020, according to AP VoteCast. November's election will serve as a crucial test for Democrats and whether they can regain Latino support — both in the state and nationally. Strategists, unions, organizers and politicians so far were pivoting away from immigration and focusing on pocketbook concerns in their appeals. 'At the end of the day, if you're worried about paying your bills and being safe at night, everything else is secondary,' Rep. Josh Gottheimer, one of the Democratic candidates, told the AP. 'I think that is front and center in the Latino community.' One exception was Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who was arrested while trying to join an oversight tour of a 1,000-bed immigrant detention center. A trespass charge was later dropped, but he sued interim U.S. Attorney Alina Habba over the dropped prosecution. In one of his final campaign ads in Spanish, he used footage from the arrest to cast himself as a reluctant warrior, with text saying he is 'El Único,' Spanish for 'the only one,' who confronts Trump.
Politico
10 minutes ago
- Politico
Rep. Mikie Sherrill wins Democratic nomination for NJ governor
Democrats chose Rep. Mikie Sherrill as their nominee for governor of New Jersey, as the party attempts to defy odds by holding onto the governorship for a third term in a row. The Associated Press called the race just under an hour after polls closed. The four-term member of Congress prevailed in the crowded Democratic primary field on Tuesday to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy. She'll face Republican Jack Ciattarelli, setting up a high-stakes battle of two party establishment favorites. Both sides acknowledge that November's election will be competitive. Although the electorate does favor Democrats, it's been decades since Democrats have won the governorship three terms in a row in the Garden State. But in recent history, the candidate of the party opposite of the one that controls the White House typically wins the race for governor. Still, Republicans are emboldened by President Donald Trump's closer-than-expected loss in New Jersey last November, as well as the gains they've made to cut into Democrats' voter registration advantage. And Republicans argue it helps that they have a candidate with high name ID: Ciattarelli ran for governor two times prior and narrowly lost to Murphy in 2021.
The Hill
20 minutes ago
- The Hill
Argentina's Supreme Court upholds prison sentence for ex-President Cristina Fernández
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the 6-year prison sentence on corruption charges for former President Cristina Fernández. The court ruling disqualifies the leader of South American country's opposition movement, known as Peronism, from holding public office. It left Fernández, one of Argentina's most important political figures of the past two decades, at the brink of an arrest by authorities. Fernández governed for eight years after succeeding her husband in 2007. Under her watch, Argentina became notorious for its unbridled state spending and massive budget deficits. She was found guilty by a federal court in 2022 of having committed a millionaire fraud during her presidency through irregular allocation of state funds to a businessman close to her. Fernández had asked the court for a review of the prison sentence in March, which three judges of the high court rejected. Tuesday's court decision means that Fernández will not be able to compete in September for a seat in the legislature in the country's capital, as she had announced. The sentence 'does nothing more than to protect our republican and democratic system,' the court wrote in a resolution provided to The Associated Press. As the ruling was announced, supporters of Fernández and her political movement blocked main roadways into Buenos Aires. Fernández quickly rejected the decision, calling the court justices 'puppets' of those wielding economic power in the country. 'They're three puppets answering to those ruling far above them,' she told supporters outside her party's headquarters in the capital. 'It's not the opposition. It's the concentrated economic power of Argentina's government.' Argentina's far-right President Javier Milei celebrated the ruling, writing in a post on X: 'Justice. Period.' The ruling dealt a blow to Fernández's political movement. She said the day before that even if she is in jail, Peronism will live on in resistance to Milei, whose austerity measures stand in stark contrast to the policies implemented during her leadership. Fernandez's defense is expected to request she serve her sentence in house arrest, given she is over 70 years old. Gregorio Dalbón, one of Fernández's legal representatives, said that 'we are going to take this case to all international human rights organizations: the Inter-American Commission and Court, the UN Human Rights Council' and more. The court case, which began in 2016, centered on 51 public contracts for road works under Fernández and her late husband, former President Néstor Kirchner. The contracts were awarded to companies linked to Lázaro Báez, a convicted construction magnate and friend of the presidential couple, at prices 20% above the standard rate. According to the court, the governments carried out 'an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver' that harmed the interests of the government and resulted in the embezzlement of roughly $70 million, at the current exchange rate. Fernández has questioned the impartiality of the judges and claimed that much of the evidence was gathered outside legal deadlines and that her legal defense didn't have access to it. Fernández also faces a number of other upcoming trials on corruption charges. ____ Associated Press journalists Almudena Calatrava y Débora Rey contributed to this report from Buenos Aires. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
