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Der Spiegel (9 June 2021)

By Emmanuel Freudenthal, Matthias Gebauer, Patricia Huon, Héni Nsaibia, Maximilian Popp, Britta Sandberg und Youri van der Weide

France initially deployed its military to Mali to hunt down jihadists. But reporting by DER SPIEGEL shows that its soldiers have repeatedly killed civilians there. Is the country turning into France’s Afghanistan?

They had come to celebrate. Around 100 people were gathered on the outskirts of the village of Bounti in Mali, West Africa, for a wedding in January. Some sat on mats in the shade of trees and drank tea. The feast was about to be served when French fighter jets appeared in the sky, says Madabbel Diallo, 71, a shepherd who was one of the guests.

A short time later, Diallo heard an explosion and then another. The next thing he remembers is lying on the ground, badly injured. His legs were bleeding. He saw people with limbs torn to shreds. One man’s entrails were seeping out of his body. Helpers who rushed to the site from the village took Diallo to the clinic in the nearest town.

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