| Date: | 3 January 2021 |
| Mali wedding airstrike | |
| Location: | Bounti, Mopti Region, Mali |
| Partof: | Mali War |
| Fatalities: | 22 (UN) |
| Injuries: | Unknown |
| Target: | AQIM fighters |
| Victims: | civilians |
| Type: | |
On 3 January 2021, the French Armed Forces carried out an airstrike targeting a wedding claiming that terrorists were killed without any collateral damage. A UN report later revealed that out of the 22 people killed, 19 were civilians.[1]
On 2 January 2021, in coordination with the militaries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger the French military launched Operation Eclipse in and around the city of Boni.[2]
On 3 January 2021, Islamic extremists confronted a wedding in the village of Bounti in Mopti Region, central Mali, ordering the attendees to separate by gender. A fighter jet airstrike then killed 22 people, including children, according to witnesses and local officials including the mayor.[3] [4] [5] [6]
Residents also said a helicopter opened fire on the ceremony.[7] The French Armed Forces said they had killed "dozens" of militant Islamists in Hombori, a few kilometers away, on that day, but that a connection between the strike and a wedding party "does not correspond to information collected prior to the airstrike".[3] [4] [5]
On 30 March 2021, the MINUSMA United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali concluded that the strike killed 19 unarmed civilians and three armed men.[8] They said the strike was on a wedding attended by about 100 civilians and five armed men, presumably members of a group affiliated with al-Qaeda. [8]
The French military maintains its version of events, and called the UN report "biased".[9] [10]