MALI, 31 March, 2021 (TON): On Tuesday, the UN investigators contradicted France’s account on French January air strike at a wedding in remote desert of central Mali.

According to UN, the French air strike killed 19 civilians and three armed men contradicting France's account that only Islamist militants were hit.

The human rights division of the United Nations mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said it had visited the place and analyzed satellite images and interviewed more than 400 people, including at least 115 in face-to-face, individual sessions.

"MINUSMA is able to confirm that a wedding celebration was held that brought together about 100 civilians at the site of the strike," the report said.

The report said, 19 people, including 16 civilians and three armed men who were attending the wedding, were killed immediately in the air attack, while three more civilians died while being transferred to medical care.

The French defence ministry rejected the report's findings, saying, "The only concrete sources on which this report is based are local testimonies. They are never transcribed, the identity of the witnesses is never specified, nor the conditions in which the testimonies were gathered."

Although, France has been embroiled in an eight-year conflict in Mali, a former French colony, the local officials in northern Mali accused France's military last week of killing six civilians in another air strike. French forces said they had again hit Islamist militants.