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Controversy erupted over an attack on Sunday against a village in central Mali, located in an area where the French armed forces claim to have carried out an airstrike against jihadists on the same day.
The French military rejects any accusation of error, saying their operation was a precision raid carried out after careful surveillance.
Here’s what we know about the events:
What happened to Bounti?
Several residents of the remote village of Bounti said a wedding party was attacked mid-afternoon on Sunday, causing panic.
Almost all describe the aircraft as a single, unidentified helicopter.
At least one witness says the helicopter threw bombs or possibly fired rockets, while others are more vague.
An association for the defense of the Fulani ethnic group in Mali has published the names of 18 people who, according to it, were killed. A witness also described mutilated bodies that were buried in a mass grave on Monday.
Various sources said that many injured, including women and children, were taken to nearby towns.
What does France say?
After the attack, social media began to buzz with speculation about a possible mistake.
Only the Malian armed forces and the French anti-jihadist mission in the Sahel, known as Barkhane, are conducting offensive air operations in Mali.
The French army broke its silence on Tuesday after AFP collected the testimonies.
His armed forces headquarters have denied any connection to an attack on a marriage.
He said the jet fighters carried out a single attack killing several dozen jihadists in a planned and targeted operation.
The strike was carried out after the group had been monitored for several days, he said.
“There can be no doubt or ambiguity, there was no marriage,” a senior military official told AFP, adding that the airstrike did not involve a helicopter.
Were there two incidents?
The French military account does not specifically mention Bounti.
He says his operation took place “west of Hombori, in the Ferendi region” north of Highway 16 – placing the attack within a radius of several kilometers (miles) of Bounti.
He also indicates that the attack took place in the middle of the afternoon, a time which agrees with the testimony in Bounti.
However, the two versions of events are so drastically different that there has been speculation that two attacks, not one, occurred in close proximity to each other at around the same time.
This narrative was reinforced on Wednesday after the medical association Médecins sans frontières (MSF), which works a lot in central Mali, released a statement.
He said two villages – Bounti and Kikara, 15 kilometers (nine miles) apart – were “bombed” on Sunday.
He said he had treated “eight seriously injured people” who had “gunshot wounds and skin lacerations from explosions”.
Gunshot wounds are incompatible with an air strike but are compatible with bullets fired from a helicopter or on the ground.
Why are the facts so sketchy?
MSF’s statement, released by a respected organization on the ground, is rare first-hand evidence in this troubled region.
External verification is extremely difficult in an area battered by jihadist attacks and ethnic violence. Obtaining direct testimony is difficult and traveling to the region is dangerous.
The Malian armed forces and government have remained officially discreet, a position that has helped fuel speculation.
The French armed forces “are the only ones to have opened fire in the area … the Malian army has not carried out any strikes,” a senior Malian military source finally told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The armed forces of the two countries have worked together for eight years in an attempt to roll back the jihadists, and a catastrophic mistake is in neither interest.
Mali has a fledgling transitional government after a coup in August.
President-elect Ibrahim Boubakar Keita was ousted by the military amid mass protests sparked in part by anger over the failure to quell the jihadist insurgency.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron is under pressure to reduce Barkhane’s staff by 5,100 men.
Its decision depends primarily on the public’s perception of the viability of the mission, as well as the losses.
Five French soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in Mali on December 28 and January 2, bringing the mission’s losses to 50.
bur-ah-dab-dla-lal / ri / dl
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