DAKAR, Senegal — They had gathered for a wedding in a village in central Mali. An hour later, 22 members of the wedding party were dead, killed by French warplanes. The airstrike, on Jan. 3, set off outrage in the West African country and has intensified calls for France, which has more than 5,000 troops stationed in the region, to leave. Soon after the airstrike, on the village of Bounti, reports began to emerge that a wedding had been hit. France immediately dismissed any suggestion that its planes had attacked a wedding party or that there had been any collateral damage.

Source: International New York Times March 30, 2021 22:07 UTC