UN demands Mali allow peacekeepers into town where 300 died

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The top U.N. envoy in Mali is demanding that the country’s military leaders allow U.N. peacekeepers to visit a town where Human Rights Watch says the Malian army and foreign soldiers suspected to be Russian recently killed an estimated 300 men, one of several alleged rights abuses denounced by the U.S., Britain and France. According to Human Rights Watch, the killings in Moura were the worst single atrocity reported in Mali’s 10-year armed conflict against Islamic extremists.  Britain and France alleged at a U.N. Security Council meeting Thursday that Russian mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group were involved.