Mali Decries ECOWAS After Burkina Faso’s Army Accused of Massacre
Mali’s military government has lashed out at the Economic Community of West African States’ chairman for calling an April massacre in neighboring Burkina Faso part of a genocide.
Burkina Faso’s military leader has said militants who stole military equipment could be responsible.
In a statement Thursday on Mali’s state TV, ORTM, the government rejected the West African bloc’s chairman’s calling civilian killings “genocide.”
Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who is also president of Guinea Bissau, used the term in a tweet April 27 in which he condemned the April 20 mass killing of more than 100 civilians, allegedly by Burkina Faso’s army.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) released a statement the same day stating that targeting civilians can be characterized as genocide by the International Criminal Court.
An ORTM presenter read the Malian military government’s response. The statement said the ECOWAS chairman’s statements qualified the incident as genocide without any proof and that Embalo had imposed his will on the commission.
Source: allAfrica
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