By Mohamed AG Ahmedou – Political and security analyst for Mali and the Sahel.
Mopti, scene of a propaganda speech
It was in the symbolic city of Mopti, the epicenter of intercommunal tensions and state violence in recent years, that the Malian Minister of Reconciliation, Peace, and National Cohesion, Lieutenant General Ismaël Wagué, chose to speak on the Mali Kura Taasira3 program. A speech with strong symbolic significance, but riddled with untruths and historical manipulations.
“The only fight the state is fighting is against terrorism, not against communities,” he said, in a clear attempt to rewrite Mali’s recent history. Yet, since the military coup of August 18, 2020, of which Wagué was one of the main instigators, the facts speak for themselves: the Malian state under the junta has regularly confused the fight against terrorism with repression against civilian populations, mainly Fulani, Tuareg, and Arabs.
Moura, 2022: a massacre in silence
In March 2022, the town of Moura, in the center of the country, was the scene of one of the most documented war crimes in recent years in Mali. Over several days, hundreds of civilians—primarily Fulani—were summarily executed by the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and their Russian proxies under Wagner. Rather than open an independent investigation, the government opted for silence. To date, no one responsible has been prosecuted.
Wagué, already Minister of Reconciliation at the time, never denounced this massacre. Worse still, his silence in the face of military atrocities was coupled with a soothing discourse denying any state responsibility. The self-proclaimed Army Corps General now wants to pose as a peacemaker, while the junta to which he belongs has institutionalized state violence against entire communities.
A junta in the service of war, not peace
Since 2021, collaboration between Bamako and the paramilitary group Wagner has transformed Mali into a laboratory of terror against its own populations. Drone strikes on nomadic camps in the north, so-called “combing” operations in the districts of Douentza, Ténenkou, Ménaka, Niafunké, Kidal, Bourem, Abeibara, Tessalite, Goundam and Gourma-Rharous, often target unarmed civilians, under the pretext of fighting jihadism.
The Tuareg and Arab populations of the north, like the Fulani communities of the center, have been regularly stigmatized as “accomplices” or “terrorists” without proof, simply because of their ethnicity or their nomadic way of life.
The hypocrisy of a speech of appeasement
Faced with this brutal reality, Wagué’s words resonate like a provocation:
“The State protects all its components without distinction”;
“There is no policy of exaction against any ethnic group.”
These words, delivered with aplomb in Mopti, deny the obvious. The official Malian discourse claims to be unified, but it mainly serves to conceal the absence of a real transitional justice project. The promise to integrate 3,000 ex-combatants into the national army remains vague, without transparent criteria or security guarantees for former rebels from the Tuareg or Arab movements.
As for “projects to remediate harm” or the “creation of a peace center,” these are more hype than reality. No serious program to compensate Moura’s families or other civilian victims has been initiated.
Peace under military control
The peace Ismaël Wagué is demanding today is an armed peace, imposed by force and the elimination of dissenting voices. The junta has systematically neutralized civil society, muzzled the media, suspended political parties, and eradicated all countervailing power.
The Algiers Accords were buried without debate, the representatives of Azawad were marginalized, and the very concept of reconciliation was emptied of its meaning: we cannot speak of peace without justice, nor of national cohesion without truth.
Words to cover up crimes
Ismaël Wagué’s speech in Mopti is the most cynical expression of a regime that has made repression a mode of government and propaganda a tool of dissimulation. Behind the assertion of an exclusive fight against terrorists lies a policy of ethnic scapegoating, state violence, and memory manipulation.
The international community, largely silent today, will one day have to answer for its complacency in the face of these excesses. As for the Malian people, they deserve better than a peace imposed by colonels: they deserve truth, justice, and dignity.
29-07-25