Bombing a wedding in Mali: Inside France's drone war

LE BREAKDOWN With Yasser Louati

Guest: Khalil Dewan, head of investigations at Stoke White Lawyers (London) After the bombing of a wedding celebration in the town of Bounti, Mali that left 19 civilians dead, a damning UN report contradicted claims by the French government that armed extremists were on site. To this, France has consistently refuted the accusation and has stuck to its narrative of targeting terrorists in the central Malian town and has so far ignored calls by Malians to hold its military personnel to account. Six months later, on July 3rd, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he will be ending "Operation Barkhane" and withdraw troops from the region. But what he failed to announce, was the increase in the number of French drones that will be taking off from the Niamy, Niger airbase and continue drone operations with the sole purpose of continuing what troops on the ground had been doing since 2013. “France has a systematic problem in admitting and identifying civilian casualties. The mounting evidence on the Bounti wedding airstrikes still has not triggered any investigations on part of France or the Mali government – none have approached the victims to date”Khalil Dewan Armed drones are becoming an integral part of France's military operations abroad but nothing has transpired in terms of strategy, chain of command, usage policies and when/how a strike is ordered. The Bounti, Mali massacre and the impunity that has followed has prompted the CJL to cover the topic through Le Breakdown and Yasser Louati who received Khalil Dewan head of investigations at the London based Stoke White lawfirm, and author of the report: France's Shadow War in Mali: Airstrikes at the Bounti Wedding. In this episode, we covered the horrific bombing of civilians in Mali but also how the 20 year long US drone war and its thousands of civilian casualties has not deterred France from launching its own, and, to make things worse, without any transparency. Le Breakdown is brought to you the CJL, the Committee for Justice & Liberties. We are an independent human rights and civil liberties organization.