Several dozen people in Mali hold a rare protest against the army after massacre allegations

BAMAKO, Mali — Several dozen people, notably women and children, have demonstrated in the central Malian village of Diafarabé following allegations that the Malian army killed more than 20 people.

The protest happened on Wednesday, two days after the alleged massacre. Although allegations of Malian army killings are frequent in this part of West Africa, demonstrations have been rare since military rule and restrictions on freedom of expression were installed in Mali.

''The women are demonstrating their anger to denounce the alleged murder of 27 people by the Malian army last Monday,'' said Diowro Diallo, president of the Fulani association Dental Wuwardé.

''The army arrested 28 men who were at the Diafrabé market to sell their animals," Diallo told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The soldiers crossed the river behind the village with the prisoners, but one escaped and returned to the village to report that the army had executed the others,''

Diafarabé, a predominantly Fulani ethnic village located in central Mali, is an area where JNIM, an Al Qaida-linked group, is active and regularly targets the Malian army with attacks.

The army said it has launched an inquiry.

''An investigation has been opened following these allegations, and we are waiting for its conclusion to determine what happened,'' Malian army spokesman Col. Maj. Souleymane Dembélé said Thursday.

Last December, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Malian army and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing dozens of civilians and setting fire to at least 100 houses during military operations in central and northern Mali.

Human rights associations have regularly accused the Malian army of human rights violations since the beginning of the country's security and political crisis in 2012. In 2020, a group of military officers took advantage of the widespread discontent against democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta to stage a coup and seize power.

Mali's military government cut military cooperation with France and the European Union, which had troops in Mali as part of the fight against extremism, and forged new security ties with Russia instead. However, analysts say that the security situation has worsened.