Anti-terror raids killing civilians in West Africa

Bloomberg

More than 142 people are missing and 57 feared killed after troops in Mali and Niger scaled up counter-terrorism operations in recent months, Amnesty International said.
The human-rights group documented 199 cases of abuses, arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances by troops in the two countries, as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso, in February and March. The security forces were responding to attacks by groups linked to al-Qaeda and the IS.
The report follows allegations of widespread abuse by West African troops against civilians documented by the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali. The mission documented 101 extrajudicial killings, 32 cases of enforced disappearances and 32 cases of torture by Malian security forces against civilians in Mali in the first quarter this year.
“While arbitrary arrests by security forces sweep up dozens of people at the time, some aren’t seen again, and the true scale of the violations committed by the armies is unknown,” Samira Daoud, Amnesty’s West and Central Africa director, said.
On February 7, Malian troops descended on the southwestern village of Massabougou, arresting 22 villagers and killing eight others, according to unidentified people interviewed by Amnesty. Two days later, soldiers began another operation in a nearby village, killing the imam and a local leader.
During the same period, at least 100 civilians were killed in Niger’s Tillabery region, allegedly in retaliation for some of the deadliest attacks against Nigerien forces that left at least 160 soldiers dead in two raids in December and January this year. There have been subsequent attacks since then. Forty-three people were killed in multiple raids in central Mali
on June 3 and 5, according to local human-rights organisation Tabital Pulakuu. The government said it would investigate whether soldiers were behind the attacks, as Tabital Pulakuu alleged.
Malian Defense Ministry spokesman Boubacar Diallo said any alleged abuses by Malian forces would be investigated by the authorities.