Gao: Dozens of civilians were arrested in Arsan by the Malian army
On the morning of Monday, May 27, 2024, the Russian Wagner Group, in cooperation with the Malian army, arrested 20 civilians in the Ersan area, located in Enbouragne, Gao State. Informed local sources indicate that among the detainees are women and elderly people who were arrested without any valid reason. This is not the first time that... The Malian army and Wagner mercenaries in the village of Irsan. On October 4, 2023, the Malian army and Wagner mercenaries committed a horrific operation that shook the hearts of the Azawadi people at home and abroad, represented by the execution of 18 civilians in the Irsan locality, cutting off their heads, and blowing up their bodies in an operation that is the first of its kind to be carried out against the Azawadi people. .
More details about the Ersan incident
During the day of October 4, 2023, at approximately 5 p.m., an alliance of the Malian army and Wagner mercenaries led by a guide familiar with the terrain arrived at houses 5 kilometers west of Irsan. Two civilians, between the ages of 40 and 56, were arrested as they were leaving the village for the camps, and were tortured. Then they were executed. Once the news spread throughout the village, everyone tried to save himself by fleeing outside the village. Women, children, the elderly, and the sick fled, leaving everything behind. The evacuation of the village, with a population of about 2,000 people, continued throughout the night from October 4 to 5. Not one person remained. Nobody but one old, disabled woman. On the morning of October 5, 2023, around 7 a.m., the terrorist alliance of the Malian army and Wagner mercenaries invested in the village of Ersan. After noticing that the village was becoming deserted, the Malian army and Wagner immediately began looting civilian homes, sabotaging their equipment, and burning them. Their equipment and vandalized the artesian well in the village at around 10 a.m., on October 5, 2023. Other herders who came to the village to graze their animals were also arrested and were tortured and then beheaded by Malian Army and Wagner terrorists. On the same day, at around 11 a.m., Some soldiers on motorcycles toured nearby camps where they met elderly men between 65 and 90 years old. All of these civilians were beheaded , and 18 people were counted. They were all beheaded and the coalition destroyed the water towers that supplied water to the village and the Bedouin camps. A local source who witnessed the incident added, “As I write this letter, many women and children are lost in the desert, at risk of dying from thirst and hunger, everyone looking for each other in the bush.” Families The entire population has no news of its loved ones in an area where there is no network or any means of transportation. All the residents of Ersan are under terror and fear from the terrorists of the Malian army and Wagner and are condemned not to return to the village for fear of similar conditions to their friends. He added, “We call on the international community, non-governmental organizations, people of good will, and authorities concerned with peace and the protection of civilians and their property to assist these residents.”
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