UN deploys team of human rights experts to investigate massacre of 157 Malian villagers

The United Nations has dispatched human rights experts to central Mali to investigate a weekend massacre of at least 157 villagers seen as one of the worst acts of bloodshed in a country beset by ethnic violence.

The attack, in which women and children were burned in their homes by gunmen, escalated a conflict between Dogon hunters and Fulani herders that killed hundreds of civilians in 2018 and is spreading across the Sahel, the arid region between the Sahara desert to the north and Africa’s savannahs to the south.

“A team of 10 human rights specialists, a child protection agent and two MINUSMA investigators have been deployed to the Mopti region to conduct a special investigation into Saturday’s terrible events,” UN mission spokesman Olivier Salgado tweeted on Wednesday. MINUSMA refers to the UN mission in Mali.

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said this week that the crimes could fall under ICC jurisdiction and that a delegation would be sent to Mali. A UN Security Council mission was already visiting the West African state to seek solutions to ethnic violence when the massacre occurred.

An official from a nearby town said on Saturday that armed men dressed as Dogon hunters assaulted villages populated by Fulani herders. The Dogon suspect the Fulani of harbouring Islamist militants, charges the Fulani deny.