exclusive: The French military has killed at least 43 civilians in Mali since 2018

TALATAYE, Mali — On the morning of March 25th, 2021, Adamou Ag Hamadou left his house in the village of Talataye, northeastern Mali. When he came back to his house on the outskirts of the village, his wife told him shocking news: there had been an airstrike in the area where three of their teenage children had brought their livestock to drink water. Ag Hamadou, a sheep herder, from Talataye, northeast of Gao, Mali, immediately rode his motorcycle to the area where the strike occurred, 25 kilometers west of Talataye. There he found a bomb site and the remains of his three children, devastating him and his community. The French airstrike in Talataye, a zone with little to no Malian government presence, was the latest in a series of airstrikes that have targeted civilians since 2018.