More than 130 people were killed in an attack on a village in central Mali

More than 130 people were killed in an attack on a village in central Mali on Saturday by armed men wearing traditional Dogon hunters’ clothing.

According to BBC,Gunmen surrounded the village at dawn before attacking people in their homes in Ogossagou in the Mopti region.

The attackers targeted members of the Fulani ethnic community who are accused of having ties to jihadists.

The attack took place while UN ambassadors were in Mali to discuss increased violence.

The Security Council mission met Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga to talk about the increased threat from jihadist fighters in central Mali.

The victims of Saturday’s deadly attack were “killed with guns and machetes”, a local security official told AFP news agency.

Witnesses also told AFP that nearly all the huts in the village had been burned down.

The mayor of the neighbouring village of Ouenkoro, Cheick Harouna Sankare, described the attack as a “massacre”. </s> BAMAKO: Armed men killed 37 civilians on Tuesday in central Mali, where ethnic violence cost hundreds of lives last year, the government said in a statement.

The government said the attackers, who were dressed as traditional Donzo hunters, raided the village of Koulogon in the central Mopti region around 5 a.m. (0500 GMT) and that some of the victims were children. </s> At least 23 civilians have been killed in attacks on villages in troubled central Mali by armed men, a local mayor and a Malian security source said on Monday.

"During Sunday, and overnight, in the villages of Bidi, Sankoro and Saran, armed men attacked civilians, killing 23 of them," Cheick Harouna Sankare, mayor of the neighbouring town of Ouenkoro, told AFP.

The death toll was confirmed by a security source in Mali. </s> (CNN) Dozens of people were killed and many others were injured when armed men attacked two villages in central Mali, the government said Tuesday.

In what the authorities are calling a "terrorist" incident, gunmen attacked the villages of Gangafani and Yoro in the Mopti region of Mali near the border with Burkina Faso, killing at least 38 people, according to an early government estimate.

The government responded to the Monday attack by sending a military unit to the area to investigate the incident and track down the perpetrators.

In a separate attack, a military patrol was ambushed by armed men in Banguimalam, according to the government statement. </s> June 10 (UPI) -- Armed men killed at least 95 people in an attack on a village in Mali, local officials said.

The group of gunmen, who Mayor Ali Dolo said were members of the Fulani ethnic group, fired gunshots and burned structures in the ethnic Dogon village of Sobanou-Kou in central Mali's Mopti region Sunday, CNN reported.

Dolo said 95 bodies, including women and children, were recovered among the city's 300 residents.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "outraged" by the news of the attack.

"He strongly condemns this attack and calls on Malian authorities to investigate this tragedy and to bring the perpetrators to justice," the spokesman said. "The secretary-general expresses his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, the people and the government of Mali and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured."

The Dogon and Fulani have been engaged in violent clashes over land and water, and nearly 200 people have been killed in attacks on Dogon communities dating back to February. </s> Bamako, Mali | AFP | Thirty-seven civilians were killed when armed men believed to be traditional Dogon hunters attacked a village of Fulani herders in central Mali Tuesday in the latest clash between the warring communities, the government said.

The attack on Koulogon village near Bankass in the Mopti region was carried out by “armed men dressed like traditional dozo hunters” allied to the Dogon ethnic group, said an official statement.

“In addition to the 37 recorded deaths, all civilians, the casualty toll includes several wounded and many burned homes”, it added.

Earlier, a security source and a man who said he had witnessed the attack also blamed the Dogon, and put the number of dead at 33.

Allaye Yattara, a Fulani, told AFP: “Our village chief Moussa Diallo was killed in the attack along with old women, (and) a girl, all members of his family.”

France helped Malian forces stave off a jihadist insurgency that took control of large parts of the troubled north in 2012, but since the death in November of Fulani jihadist figure Amadou Koufa, inter-group conflict has increased.

The violence is fuelled by accusations of Fulani grazing cattle on Dogon land and disputes over access to land and water.

The UN recorded more than 500 civilian deaths in the area in 2018.

In June, 24 members of the Fulani community were killed in an attack a UN probe blamed on the Dogon. </s> At least 23 civilians were killed in central Mali after armed men attacked three Fulani communities, a local mayor and security forces said Monday.

Reuters news agency also reported that some 300 people were missing following the attacks.

"During Sunday, and overnight, in the villages of Bidi, Sankoro and Saran, armed men attacked civilians, killing 23 of them," Cheick Harouna Sankare, mayor of the neighboring town of Ouenkoro.

After raiding the village of Saran, the attackers went on to Bidi, but people had already fled, said Harouna Sankare, who blamed the attack on Dogon hunters.

"Since they didn't find anybody [in Bidi], they burned the village and the houses and attacked the cattle," he said.

The attacks come following a wave of deadly assaults between Fulani herders and Dogon farmers who have long fought over land and resources.

The rivalry has escalated in recent years due to the growing presence of armed Islamist groups.

Read more: Mali: 'Worse than anything we’ve seen in living memory'

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's government has promised to disarm the militias but has so far struggled to do so.

Tit-for-tat violence between the rival communities has increased this year. In March, suspected Dogon militiamen killed more than 150 Fulani in central Mali in one of the most violent attacks in the country's recent history. Raids on Dogon villages in June killed over 40 people.

Read more: Mali's security crisis: A cycle of exploitation and corruption

In other parts of central Mali, 12 civilians including a baby were killed on Sunday when the vehicle they were traveling in struck a landmine. Local mayor Issiaka Ganame told Reuters news agency that none of the passengers survived.

It was not clear who laid the mine, but jihadist groups have been known to deploy this kind of ordnance in the region.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> BAMAKO, Mali — The spokesman for a Tuareg group in Mali says gunmen have attacked two villages in the country’s central Menaka region near the border with Niger, killing at least 20 people.

Mohamed Ag Albachar of the Azawad self-defence group, said Wednesday that armed men attacked two villages on Tuesday, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Menaka. The attackers killed 20 civilians, including elderly people, and some security personnel also died in the attack.

The attack has not been claimed but it bears the marks of jihadists who stage attacks in the region in retaliation against Tuaregs who are fighting against the Islamic State.

Attacks against civilians have increased in Mali’s Menaka area since 2018, when the U.N.’s mission in Mali documented 100 cases of human rights violations there. </s> At least 23 civilians have been killed in attacks on villages in troubled central Mopti region of Mali by armed men, a local mayor and a Malian security source said on Monday.

"During Sunday, and overnight, in the villages of Bidi, Sankoro and Saran, armed men attacked civilians, killing 23 of them," Cheick Harouna Sankare, mayor of the neighboring town of Ouenkoro, told AFP.

"The situation is serious, the army needs to act to reassure the population," he said, adding that an emergency meeting had been called.

The death toll was confirmed to the AFP by a security source in Mali.

Local media outlets reported that the attackers were dressed as members of the Dogon group.

Sankara said the attackers headed to the Bidi village after the attack in Saran but some 300 residents had already been evacuated, Anadolu Agency reported.

Separately, 11 people died when an explosive device blew up near the central town of Koro close to the border with Burkina Faso, a local official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Ethnic tensions in the center of the country have surged since an extremist group led by preacher Amadou Koufa emerged in 2015.

The group recruit mainly from among the Fulani -- primarily cattle breeders and traders -- and they have clashed with the Dogon and Bambara -- traditionally sedentary farmers who have formed their own self-defense militias.

There has been a wave of mass killings this year, including the massacre of 41 people in two ethnic Dogon villages on June 17, according to a U.N. count.

And in March, 160 Fulani were killed in an attack on a village by suspected rival militiamen.

Unrest in the central region coincides with an ongoing terrorist campaign that the Mali government is struggling to contain despite 4,000 troops deployed by France under Operation Barkhane and the 15,000-strong Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) peacekeeping force of the U.N.

Separately, unidentified gunmen have killed 16 soldiers in an attack on a military camp in western Niger near the border with Mali, local residents and security sources said on Tuesday.

The raid occurred on Monday afternoon near the town of Inates, where militants are active, and in the same region where an ambush by Daesh's West African branch killed 28 soldiers in May.

Bandits on motorbikes carried out the assault with "two car bombs," a source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The volatile region is a major base where Nigerien soldiers are trained to serve in the MINUSMA region.

Niger hosts the African Union summit from July 6-9 less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) away in the capital Niamey. In the run-up, the European Union has been training Nigerien forces to respond to militant attacks.

Zakari Insa, the brother of one of the soldiers killed in Monday's attack, and Souley Marou, a local villager, both said 16 soldiers had died.

Two security sources confirmed the death toll, and one of them said about a dozen vehicles had been stolen. Terrorists have previously launched attacks using vehicles stolen in previous raids.

An army spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

Security has deteriorated in recent months across West Africa's Sahel region, a semi-arid strip of land south of the Sahara.

Militants loyal to Adnan Abu Waleed al-Sahrawi, the leader of Daesh in the Greater Sahara, operate along Mali's border with Burkina Faso and Niger.

Various insurgent groups operate in Niger's west and north, while Nigeria's Boko Haram is present in the southeast.

The country is part of the so-called G5 Sahel group set up to manage a coordinated response to the terrorist insurgency.

The U.S. has a big base for drones in the northern city of Agadez and Niger recently gave the Americans permission to arm their drones.

The French also have a military base near Niamey airport and another at Madama in the north.

Earlier this month, 18 Daesh terrorists were killed in a joint operation by U.S., French and Niger troops in the same area.

In 2017, they killed four members of U.S. Special Forces and four Nigerien soldiers in an ambush near the village of Tongo Tongo.
Armed men believed to be traditional hunters have killed at least 37 people in an attack on a village in central Mali.