Question Period Note: Canada's Response to human rights violations in Mali

On May 30, 2022, the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) released its first quarterly human rights report of 2022 showing that human right violations and abuses of humanitarian law have increased 151%

• The government is extremely concerned about human rights violations in Mali and by the arrival of Russian-backed Wagner Forces in Mali, suspected of numerous human rights violations.
• Canada adopted sanctions against the Wagner Group and continues to stand with the people of Mali.
• We continue to call on the Malian authorities to return to democracy as quickly as possible and in a timeline agreed to with ECOWAS.

• Canada condemns all human rights violations, wherever they occur in the world.

May 30/22 the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) released its first quarterly human rights report of 2022, covering the Jan - Mar 2022 period, showing that human right violations and abuses of international humanitarian law have increased 151% since the last quarter, with killings jumping exponentially by 324%. While armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State remained the main perpetrators of violence against civilians, a rapidly growing portion of these attacks are being attributed to the Malian Defence and Security Forces (320 violations in this quarter vs. 31 violations last quarter) "supported by foreign military elements". Though MINUSMA did not specify the origin of these foreign elements, they are widely believed to be Russian-backed Wagner mercenaries. These attacks have also disproportionately targeted already marginalized Fulani communities, who are viewed by many Malians as the main communities from which jihadist groups recruit supporters.
Of note, the MINUSMA reported figures exclude a massacre of civilians that took place in late March in Moura, in central Mali. A separate MINUSMA Special Report on the massacre in Moura is being finalzied, though MINUSMA continues to be denied access to the site of the killings by Malian authorities while their remote investigation into the matter is ongoing. Malian authorities have announced their own investigation into the events in Moura and have reportedly told MINUSMA that their request to access the site would be "considered" once Mali's own investigation is "finalised". Canada issued a public statement on April 5, 2022 condemning the massacre in Moura and calling on MINUSMA to be allowed full access to the site to conduct an independent investigation. Other likeminded countries issued similar statements. Canada also previously warned in a statement issued with European countries in December 2021 of the dangers of the Wagner deployment to Mali. The US at the time issued a similar statement. Canada also recently sanctioned the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin (Wagner's financier), his immediate family (wife, son and daughter) and Dmitriy Utkin (Wagner's founder) in the context of the war in Ukraine.

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