Attackers kill 31 in Mali village, after massacre last year at same site

[rooster59]

Attackers kill 31 in Mali village, after massacre last year at same site

 

FILE PHOTO: French soldiers patrol in the streets of Gossi, Mali, July 30, 2019. Picture taken July 30, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

 

BAMAKO (Reuters) - At least 31 people were killed on Friday in an attack on a village that was the scene last year of Mali's worst civilian massacre in recent memory, the government said.

 

A government statement late on Friday did not say who carried out the early morning attack on Ogossagou, a village of Fulani herders in central Mali.

 

"They came and shot everything that moved," said Hamadou Dicko from Fulani association Tabital Pulaaku.

 

In the attack on Ogossagou in March, suspected militiamen from a rival group killed more than 150 civilians, part of spiralling ethnic and jihadi violence in West Africa's vast Sahel region.

 

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, and another local official, who declined to be named, said the latest attack came less than 24 hours after Malian troops who had been stationed near Ogossagou left their base.

 

An army spokesman said soldiers had been deployed to respond to the attack but did not give details.

 

Central Malian residents have criticised the army for failing to protect them against violence that has displaced 200,000 people and left many communities with no local government or means of defence.

 

They have turned to self-defence militias for protection against jihadists and rival ethnic groups though the defence groups have also used their weapons to settle scores.

 

Malian officials have said they suspect Dan Na Ambassagou, an anti-jihadi, ethnic Dogon group of carrying out last year's massacre in Ogossagou. The group denies responsibility.

 

French forces intervened in 2013 to drive back al Qaeda-linked jihadists who had seized northern Mali the previous year, but the militants have regrouped, stoking ethnic rivalries in central Mali and elsewhere to boost recruitment and destabilise the region.

 

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Additional reporting by Paul Lorgerie in Bamako and Anna Pujol-Mazzini in Dakar, Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Aaron Ross and Edmund Blair)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-16

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[Puchaiyank]

Sad way to live and die...these attempts at ethnic cleansings around the world are the most heinous of crimes against humanity...

[uesnyc]

I shan't be holidaying there anytime soon.

[Tug]

How sad hope the perps die a slow painful death and beeing humiliated at the same time

[Mick501]

Just another day in the world of the "religion of peace."  Well, there's actually 30-40 worldwide terrorist attacks by Muslims each and every day of the year.   Not sure how they can seriously be labelled "extremist" with the kind of participation level required to undertake so many attacks.

[rudi49jr]

55 minutes ago, Mick501 said:

Just another day in the world of the "religion of peace."  Well, there's actually 30-40 worldwide terrorist attacks by Muslims each and every day of the year.   Not sure how they can seriously be labelled "extremist" with the kind of participation level required to undertake so many attacks.

In this particular instance it is probably much more an ethnic conflict between Dogon and Fulani, that has little to do with religion.

[Andrew65]

The French military have been in Mali for quite a while now trying to quell this stuff.

[metisdead]

A reported troll post and a reply has been removed.