On 3 January 2021, the

French Armed Forces The French Armed Forces (french: Forces armées françaises) encompass the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force and the Gendarmerie of the French Republic. The President of France heads the armed forces as Chief of the Armed Forces. Franc ...

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 (almost all of them).

Background

On 2 January 2021, in coordination with the militaries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger the French military launched

Operation Eclipse Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

in and around the city of

Boni Boni may refer to: Places * Bone state, a vassal state of the government of Celebes, Dutch East Indies * Boni MRT Station, a train station in Manila, Philippines * Boni, Benin, an arrondissement in the Collines department of Benin state * Boni (d ...

The Airstike

On 3 January 2021,

Islamic extremists Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism, or radical Islam, is used in reference to extremist beliefs and behaviors which are associated with the Islamic religion. These are controversial terms with varying definitions, ranging from academic unde ...

confronted a wedding in the village of Bounti in Mopti Region, central Mali, ordering the attendees to separate by gender. A fighter jet

airstrike An airstrike, air strike or air raid is an offensive operation carried out by aircraft. Air strikes are delivered from aircraft such as blimps, balloons, fighters, heavy bombers, ground attack aircraft, attack helicopters and drones. The offic ...

then killed 22 people, including children, according to witnesses and local officials including the mayor. Residents also said a helicopter opened fire on the ceremony. The French Armed Forces said they had killed "dozens" of

militant Islamist Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is ...

s 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". On 30 March 2021, the MINUSMA United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali concluded that the strike killed 19 unarmed civilians and three armed men. 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 Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...

. The French military maintains its version of events, and called the UN report "biased".

References

{{terrorism-stub Wedding airstrike 2021 airstrikes 2021 in international relations Airstrikes conducted by France Airstrikes in Africa Attacks on weddings Wedding airstrike January 2021 crimes in Africa January 2021 events in Africa Wedding airstrike Mopti Region Wedding airstrike French war crimes