Report has it that dozens of civilians have been killed and others wounded in Mali’s volatile centre when unidentified armed men on motorbikes attacked ethnic Dogon farming villages, according to local officials.
The attackers targeted four villages on Wednesday in Mopti region, which has seen dozens of tit-for-tat ethnic massacres as well as raids by fighters of armed groups over the past few years.
Moulaye Guindo, the mayor of the commune of Bankass, released a list of victims on Thursday that put the death toll at 32. Other reports put the death toll to at least 30.
Mali is struggling to contain a multilayered and complex conflict that erupted in 2012 when ethnic Taureg separatists, allied with fighters from an al-Qaeda offshoot, launched a rebellion that took control of the country’s north.
Armed group fighters swiftly pushed over the Tuareg rebels and seized key northern cities until they were driven out in early 2013 by French troops, together with Malian forces and soldiers from other African countries.
But the fighters including some with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) have since regrouped and extended their operations into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger despite the presence of thousands of national and international troops, including French and United Nations forces.
Attacks have grown fivefold between 2016 and 2020, with 4,000 people killed in 2019, up from about 770 killed in 2016, according to the UN. Africa-News reports.