A/HRC/25/72 2. Human rights violations committed by armed groups 50. Armed groups continue to be involved in serious human rights violations in northern Mali, including violations of the right to life, abductions, rapes, ill-treatment, violations of the right to own property and suicide attacks resulting in the deaths of 47 persons, including 2 peacekeepers, 2 French reporters and 1 minor as well as numerous civilians. Human rights observers have also collected information on nine cases of serious human rights violations committed by MNLA, in particular in Kidal and Timbuktu, involving 21 civilians and 1 member of the Malian armed forces. MNLA elements were also implicated in cases of arrest and arbitrary detention, torture, recruitment and employment of children, looting, extortion and intimidation. 51. At about one o’clock on the afternoon of 28 September 2013, a vehicle exploded next to the entrance to the garrison of the Fifth Military Region of Malian armed forces in Timbuktu. Three suspected jihadis were in the vehicle, which apparently was heavily loaded with explosives. Travelling at high speed, the vehicle crashed into a military building adjoining the garrison’s checkpoint and blew up. The preliminary toll was five persons killed – the three suspected jihadis and two civilian passers-by. AQMI claimed responsibility for the attack. 52. On 7 October, six shells were fired at the town of Gao, seriously injuring one Malian soldier. MUJAO claimed responsibility for the attack. That same day, a bridge near the locality of Ansongo was damaged by an improvised explosive device. On 23 October, four persons blew up their vehicle, which was filled with explosives, at a roadside checkpoint of MINUSMA peacekeepers in Tessalit, resulting in the deaths of seven persons, including two MINUSMA soldiers from Chad and a 6-year-old child. On 1 November, violent demonstrations were held in Gao and Menaka to protest the lack of basic services such as access to water, electricity and the courts as well as the deterioration of security conditions and the economic situation. 53. The illegal circulation of firearms in the town of Kidal seems to have had an impact on the security of civilians. On 24 October, a 35-year-old man, a member of MNLA, was reportedly murdered in his home in the Abeibara Cercle, 50 kilometres from Kidal, by three armed members of AQMI who came on motorcycles. Two days later, an Arab truck driver was reportedly killed in similar circumstances by armed men on motorcycles. The incident took place on the Anefis road, approximately 110 kilometres from Kidal. The three surviving passengers reported the incident to the Kidal gendarmerie. 54. On 2 November, two French reporters working for Radio France international were abducted and murdered by four armed men in the Kidal region. Their bodies were found some 15 kilometres from Kidal, on the Tin-Essako road. This serious incident constitutes the ultimate obstacle to freedom of expression, including freedom to inform and the right of access to information. 55. On 4 November, four civilians, including a woman and a child, were killed when the transport vehicle in which they were riding hit an improvised explosive device approximately 110 kilometres west of Menaka, in the Gao region. On 26 November 2013, three members of the Tuareg community were reportedly abducted in Kidal and two of them executed by members of AQMI between Talahandak and Borhassa, 285 kilometres north of Kidal, near the Algerian border. The bodies of the two victims, aged 25 and 29, who were members of the Ifoghas community, were found by the local population and turned over to members of their families. The third victim is still unaccounted for. 56. The independent expert also received reports about the murder of a traditional chief in Gourma Rharous, in the Timbuktu region. The incident occurred on 28 November 2013, when two armed men forced their way into a Tuareg camp and reportedly fired two shots, killing the head of the Tinaliderene community, 65 kilometres northeast of Ouinarden GE.14-10118 11