“We Saw People Beheaded. Even Children”: Thousands of Malians Flee to Mauritania, Trapped Between Militiamen and Mercenaries

El Pais

Lean Left

Factuality

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When the shots began, Mentou and his family had already hidden. A drone flew over the market of Boflusa, a town in central Mali. It was an ominous sign that the residents had learned to fear. Shortly afterwards armed men arrived, burning posts and shooting at the crowd. “They shot everyone,” recalls, in an interview with this newspaper, Mentou about that day in early November 2025. It has been a month and now he is sitting in the shadow of an ac…