A/HRC/31/76 the Malian security forces and abuses committed by armed groups following terrorist attacks, fighting among armed groups and ceasefire violations. 39. A mission was undertaken on 21 and 22 May in Tin Hama, in the Gao region, in order to investigate human rights violations, ceasefire violations and abuses committed following fighting between elements of CMA and elements of the Platform for control of Ménaka and the surrounding area. The mission confirmed that the following violations had been committed by the groups concerned: violations of the right to life (two civilians killed by CMA), the summary execution of 6 civilians by Groupe d’autodéfense Touaregs Imghad et alliés (GATIA), the displacement of 38 families (160 individuals) following clashes and the abduction of 3 members of GATIA by CMA, as well as looting and the destruction of property. 1. Human rights violations committed by the Malian armed forces 40. From March to September 2015, the Human Rights Division of MINUSMA recorded a significant increase in arrests: 308 in seven months, nearly twice the number of conflict-related arrests made by the Malian armed and defence forces in 2014 (182 arrests). The individuals concerned were arrested in the context of multiple attacks on villages by armed or terrorist groups in the northern regions and also in the south of the country (Sikasso and Ségou). The Human Rights Division has already spoken to 149 of these detainees. Forty-three reported that they had been subjected to acts of ill-treatment and torture by the Malian security forces (Malian armed forces and State security agents). This rise in arrests took place against the background of an increase in terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism activities undertaken by the Malian security forces across the country. 41. The Human Rights Division of MINUSMA noted with concern that, within the framework of counter-terrorism operations conducted by the Malian armed forces, some soldiers had continued to commit acts of torture and ill -treatment during mass arrests in the Ségou and Sikasso regions. Members of particular communities (Peulhs and Arabs) were targeted on suspicion of collaborating with armed terrorist groups. The Human Rights Division was obliged, on several occasions, to cancel investigative missions to Nampala and Niono, in Niono cercle, because of the security situation in the Ségou region, where mass arrests and ill-treatment of detainees had been reported. The Independent Expert is concerned that the mass arrests and violations resulting from these operations may undermine the fragile confidence of the affected communities in the authority of the State. 42. The Independent Expert was informed that, in just one month (April/May 2015), 47 members of the Peulh community were arrested and detained following several armed attacks, notably against the Malian army in Boulkessi. The Director of the Human Rights Division of MINUSMA received a delegation of village leaders and other prominent figures of the Peulh community from across the Mopti region (700 km from Bamako). These leaders expressed serious concerns about the arrest and continued detention of members of the Peulh community suspected of being affiliated to the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO). 43. On 13 October, in Bamako, the Human Rights Division of MINUSMA investigated the conditions of detention of eight persons arrested during cou nterterrorism operations by the Malian armed forces in August and September 2015 in Nara (370 km to the north of Bamako), in the Koulikoro region. Human rights experts interviewed five of the eight detainees. One stated that he had received no food since being detained; he had to provide for himself. Two other persons also said that they were often denied food and that they were held in very small cells with no hygienic facilities. The detention of these persons did not meet the requirements of national laws, given they had been detained since September 2015 without being brought GE.16-00837 9/18