Rabat–Mali: The Conference Where Victims of Terrorism Have No Name.
By Mohamed AG Ahmedou, journalist and member of Malian civil society.
By hosting the coup leader, Ismaël Wagué, at the Conference on African Victims of Terrorism, Moroccan authorities offered a diplomatic platform to a regime accused of executing Tuareg, Arab, and Fulani civilians.
This presence stands in stark contrast to the reality of the massacres committed in Mali by the army and Russian mercenaries, and reveals the ambiguities of an event supposedly dedicated to bringing justice to the victims.
Moroccan Diplomacy in a Tense Position:
Rabat, December 2–3, 2025. In the Moroccan capital, the Conference on African Victims of Terrorism aimed to be a space for truth, compassion, and recognition. Yet, the image that dominated this event was one of paradox: the official participation of the self-proclaimed Lieutenant General Ismaël Wagué, Minister of Reconciliation for Mali’s illegitimate regime and a central figure in the military regime, in a meeting dedicated to… the victims of terrorist acts.
The information, relayed via the Malian government’s Facebook page—a communication tool used in a controversial manner by the junta—provoked incomprehension and outrage, particularly among the communities most affected by the atrocities in Mali.
For behind the official pronouncements of “peace” and “the fight against extremism” lies a diametrically opposed reality: the Malian junta has itself become a perpetrator of mass violence against civilians.
In Rabat, the massacres perpetrated by the Malian army remained unaddressed:
The Malian regime’s invitation takes on a tragic dimension in light of recent events.
For months, drone strikes by the Malian army, sometimes coordinated with Russian mercenaries from Afrika Korps (formerly Wagner Group), have been bombing not jihadist katibas, but weddings, weekly markets, and Tuareg, Arab, and Fulani hamlets.
Among the most striking incidents:
Gossi, a town in the Liptako-Gourma region of Timbuktu, October 30, 2025: 19 people killed during a wedding celebration, targeted by a Malian army drone.
Zouéra, July 8, 2025: the weekly market bombed by an army drone, killing four people, including three underage girls.
Émimalane, October 24, 2025: a deadly airstrike.
Tangata, November 13, 2025: a family of seven killed, including five children.
November 14, 2025: Six women and a baby were killed in an airstrike targeting a camp in the town of Eghachar N’Tirikene in the Gargando department, located in the western part of the Timbuktu region of Mali.
Nijhaltate, November 26, 2025: Women, men, and children were executed during a punitive operation carried out jointly by the Malian army and Africa Corps.
According to an investigation cited in the American press through the Associated Press, more than 5,000 civilians have been killed since 2022 by these operations conducted by Bamako and its Russian allies.
- None of these massacres have been mentioned in Rabat.
A Minister of Peace Representing a Regime Accused of Terror:
The irony is blatant: Ismaël Wagué, Minister of Reconciliation, is speaking at a conference on victims of terrorism while his government is accused of practices that many consider to constitute state terrorism.
Several observers assert that his presence is less about diplomacy than about a strategy to legitimize the junta internationally.
A Malian political source confides:
“Morocco is taking advantage of the frozen relations between Mali and Algeria to demonstrate its loyalty to the junta, without fully grasping the extent of the regime’s corruption. This autocratic and bloodthirsty junta is going through the darkest period in Mali’s history. The countries that support it today will have to answer for this choice tomorrow.”
Rabat is playing a risky diplomatic card:
Morocco, engaged for a decade in a policy of influence in West Africa, seized the opportunity presented by the diplomatic vacuum created by the break between Bamako and Algiers, as well as other West African countries like Mauritania, to strengthen its ties with the Malian authorities.
But by giving a platform to a military official implicated in crimes against civilians, Rabat is taking several risks:
A moral risk: associating its image with a regime accused of atrocities;
A political risk: betting on an isolated and unstable junta;
A symbolic risk: transforming a conference dedicated to victims into a platform for an alleged perpetrator.
For many observers, this invitation is a reminder of how regional geopolitics sometimes accommodates what it should condemn.
The real victims, conspicuously absent from Rabat:
In theory, the conference was intended to give a voice to the victims of terrorism in Africa.
In practice, it carefully avoided mentioning the violence perpetrated by:
The Malian military junta, the Russian mercenaries of Afrika Korps, the Wagner Group’s auxiliary militias and others, the indiscriminate bombings, and also the abuses of JNIM, which civilian populations suffer cumulatively.
The survivors of Mourra, Mourdia, Sebabougou, Inagozmi, Amasrakad, Gossi, Nijhaltate, and Tangata were not invited.
- Their dead were not named.
- Their stories were not heard.
- The victims that Rabat did not mention:
Gossi (October 30, 2025)
19 killed during a wedding struck by a Malian drone.
Zouéra (July 8, 2025)
Weekly market bombed.
Émimalane (October 24, 2025)
Several civilians killed in a drone strike.
Tangata (November 13, 2025)
Seven members of the same family, including five children, killed.
Nomadic encampment in Eghachar N’Tirikene (November 14, 2025)
Six women and a baby killed by a Malian airstrike west of Timbuktu.
Nijhaltate (November 26, 2025)
Women, men, and children killed in a joint Russian-Malian operation.
Estimated total since 2022: more than 5,000 civilians killed in operations conducted by the Malian army and the Africa Corps, according to the Associated Press.
A conference marred by silence:
By inviting Ismaël Wagué, Morocco offered the Malian junta international visibility that the Malian victims themselves still lack.
The Rabat event will be remembered as a moment when terrorism was discussed without mentioning the victims of state terror, when diplomacy prevailed over truth, and when politics silenced the dead.
As long as conferences on victims avoid naming those responsible, they will remain merely diplomatic showcases, never platforms for justice.
Mohamed AG Ahmedou
AN ULTIMATE MOCKERY OF THE VICTIMS OF TERRORISM
What this article reveals is the ultimate mockery of the victims of terrorism—the very victims they were supposed to be supporting?
How is it possible to organize a conference for victims of terrorism and invite a representative of the same junta that massacres the same civilians that are supposed to be protected? and not even mention their names or their true stories?
It`s as if they were “invisible victims” but the reports, the photos, the horrible videos are evidence enough of their visibility.
Still there was no mention of the Malian state terrorism that massacres civilians every day while largely leaving the real terrorists alone.
It`s clear to many that all of this is nothing more than a charade designed to manipulate public opinion in an attempt to legitimize the junta internationally. There is no justice in any of this, only self-interest masked by a mountain of lies. The victims they pretend to “support”, the same are paying the price.
Their names were not even mentioned.
And any day now, the Malian army and the Russian mercenaries will find another poor nomadic village in the north (Azawad), with a sleeping family inside a tent, to bomb with drones reducing the family to ashes.
Azawad Support Group
10-12-24