A CHILLING TESTIMONY FROM 2012 – IT COULD AS WELL HAVE BEEN FROM THIS YEAR…

The atrocities by the Malian army and Wagner (since 2021) has not changed in cruelty since 1963. The genocide of the Azawadian population is based on force, greed and racism.

Here is a chilling testimony from 2012 by Colonel Machakanani, when the Azawadian army took complete control of the territory in 2012, arrived at the Korogossou military camp in Gao, where he and his friends were held prisoner by the Malian army.

He describes the awful and inhuman conditions they were in and how they killed his friends through severe torture, starvation, and thirst. He paid for it by leading many battles against the army. He is a brave man and loyal to the cause of freedom for Azawad.

He did this testimony in 2012… and called upon the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes. And did anything happen? we don`t think so! that means the struggle goes on and we will not be silent!

The french text in the video is translated to english (and the automatic translator on the top of the website also translates to arabic.)

The army arrested us, along with the others, and brought us here to Gao, to this camp where I find myself today. Almost all of my comrades died under torture with electricity, deprivation of water and food.

From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., it was torture, then we were thrown into a prison. And if one of us died, we would have to take them out at night and throw them somewhere…

Then they brought 10 young people and an old man of about 85, the leader of the Ichadinharane faction, Ahmed. They tortured him by depriving him of water and food… They took the 10 young people to use them as human targets. Then they put the old man in prison with us.

In the prison, we couldn’t do anything because our hands and feet were so stiff and cramped from lack of water and food. And it started again, people were dying again and again.

Among the people who died, I remember Ahmed, the leader of the Eshadinhard factions. He was innocent, he was wrongly accused, and he was ultimately murdered and tortured again. They then took the 10 young men, dismembered them, and then shot them.

Among my fellow murdered fighters, there were Magdi Ag Masamat, Ibrahim Oussman Al Kherdu, Hassan Mahmoud, Hayni, and Mohamed Loyadegrik. Unfortunately, I only remember these names… Among those still alive are Abdoulrazak, Kheyri, Tahamet, Baba Hassan. There was another young man from Doshak, but I don’t remember his name…

They force us to applaud the death of our brothers in front of our eyes. What they do is horrible. They beat them to death at night, and then we never see their bodies again. We don’t know what they did with them, whether they did eat them or not. We’ve never seen the bodies or the graves…

And it is under these conditions that, thanks to the peace agreements, we, the survivors, were freed.

We want the International Criminal Court to prosecute the Malian officers who committed these crimes. And we want justice to be done, as it should be, to these innocent civilians.

A week later, the Malian army attacked and burned a religious village where elderly people, women and children lived, they prevented the media from entering the area. They burned everything, they left no survivors, not even women and children, here in Gao. The mass graves where these people are buried are still located just outside Gao.

We call on the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes, which we have evidence of, and which have been taking place since 1963 to the present day.

It is a reality, they went through the camps to kill the civilian population by pouring gasoline on them and setting them on fire. They don’t even kill them with a bullet, they prefer to use gasoline to save their bullets.

Meanwhile, Malian authorities are preventing journalists from reaching the scene. Not everyone in the world is aware of all these crimes.

After everything we’ve been through, the Malian authorities have done nothing for us. They haven’t tried to improve things, they haven’t even built a hospital… Mali wanted us Tuaregs to disappear. In 1973, they even poisoned the water well.

It’s true that there have been many deaths, but it seems the international community isn’t paying attention, and that hurts us deeply. Even animals are more protected than we are; there are associations that defend and protect them. No one cares about or protects the Tuaregs.

Testimony by Colonel Machakanani