Against the backdrop of the sanctions imposed by Washington on two Malian officers accused of taking part in a massacre in the center of the country in 2022, the Malian authorities called on the United States on Sunday to stop the disinformation campaign against them.
The State Department announced visa restrictions last week against the commander of a parachute commando regiment, Moustapha Sangare, and the commander of a special forces battalion, Major Lassine Togola.
The two officers, in their capacity as commanders of elements of the Malian armed forces, are accused of having operations in Moura, according to the State Department.
Earlier this month, the UN accused the Malian army and fighters, whom Westerners say belong to the Russian private security firm Wagner, of executing at least 500 people in March 2022 during an anti-jihadist operation in Moura.
Mali rejected the UN report and claimed that only jihadists were killed in Moura and that no civilians were killed, denying the presence of Wagner. Mali referred instead to the presence of Russian army instructors deployed as part of security cooperation between the two states.
In addition to the sanctions announced against the two Malian commanders, retaliatory measures were announced by the US Treasury against Ivan Maslov, whom it presented as Wagner’s leader in Mali.
The Malian government “was stunned to learn of the unilateral decision” by the US government to sanction the two Malian officers, “on the sole basis of the United Nations report”, said its spokesman, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, in a statement.
On 25th May, Malian foreign affairs officials summoned US Ambassador Rachna Korhonen to express to her “the extreme seriousness of the false accusations made against the Republic of Mali”, while appealing to the United States to “stop the disinformation campaign against Mali”.