The suffering of the Tuaregs of Azawad in Mali
The NGO Tamazgha issued an official statement denouncing that the populations of Azawad (Tuaregs, Moors and Peuls) ‘are subjected daily to extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, disappearances, torture, robbery, looting, etc., by the Russian militia Wager and the Malian army.
The NGO condemns this situation and calls for international solidarity with the people of Azawad.
The official communiqué of the NGO Tamazgha is reproduced below:
Tuaregs of Azawad victims of atrocities
For several months now, the civilian populations of Azawad (Tuaregs, Moors and Peuls) have been subjected daily to extrajudicial executions, abductions, disappearances, torture, theft, looting, destruction, etc.
These cruel acts are committed by Russian militias of the Wagner group together with soldiers of the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa), as well as jihadist groups.
Nomadic camps are bombed by aircraft, come under artillery fire or are targeted by Turkish-made drones at the disposal of the Malian junta.
FAMa soldiers and mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group are killing indiscriminately, beheading civilians and hiding the corpses. Even women and children are atrociously killed, often mutilated or beheaded.
It should be remembered that it was in the early 1960s - after the birth of the states created from scratch by colonial France - that Tuareg territory was divided between five borders and that Mali bloodily repressed Tuareg protests and uprisings by attacking civilians. Since then, the Tuareg have never stopped fighting for their fundamental rights, sometimes being forced to take up arms.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled atrocities to seek refuge in neighbouring states. They are not always given the welcome they need.
The Malian army and its partners in the Russian Wagner group are committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and even ethnic cleansing, given the selection of their victims, without any reaction from neighbouring states or the international community. This silence and almost general indifference must stop.
The NGO Tamazgha, outraged by the dramatic situation in which the people of Azawad find themselves, strongly condemns the perpetrators of the atrocities and deplores the silence of neighbouring states and the international community, as well as the indifference of public opinion.
The NGO calls on human rights organisations to take charge of this unbearable situation and to act to put an end to this criminal and murderous plan organised by the Malian junta and its partners in the Russian Wagner group.
The world can no longer remain indifferent and silent in the face of crimes committed against unarmed civilians. We therefore call on independent international jurisdictions, in particular the United Nations, to act to put an end to these crimes and to prosecute the perpetrators, who must not go unpunished.
We wish to express our full solidarity with our Tuareg compatriots. We call for international solidarity with the people of Azawad, who are being subjected to appalling cruelty. We call on the Amazigh to mobilise wherever they are and by whatever means they can, not to abandon the people of Azawad, who are facing the murderous practices of the Malian army, Wagner's Russian mercenaries and the jihadists. Azawad, a full part of the Amazigh country, deserves our support and our mobilisation.
Tamazgha wishes to express to the Tuaregs of Azawad its support and solidarity in their struggle for the defence of their territory and their people, for their sovereignty and their dignity. This struggle is for the liberation of Tenere from these criminal states whose genocidal plan envisages the eradication of the Tuaregs.
Tamazgha is on the side of the defenders of freedom and of Timmujgha, far from any obscurantist project that is far from the values we defend. In particular, the liberation of Tamazgha from macabre ideologies that have no other objective than the eradication of Amazighity through the physical elimination or forced assimilation of the Amazighs.
