Scores killed in attack on central Mali village - Al Jazeera English

At least 95 people have been killed in an overnight attack on an ethnic Dogon village in central Mali, local officials have said, in the latest bout of violence to hit the region.

Nineteen others were missing since unknown armed men attacked the village of Sobane-Kou in the Mopti region in the early hours of Monday, the government said in a statement.

"Armed men, suspected to be terrorists, launched a murderous attack on this peaceful village," the statement added.

The attackers also killed animals and burned down houses, the government said, adding that an investigation was under way.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but tensions have been rising since an ethnic Dogon militia was accused of carrying out a massacre in an ethnic Fulani village in March.

Moulaye Guindo, the mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, told Reuters news agency that Fulanis had attacked the village after dark.

A local official told AFP news agency: "Right now we have 95 dead civilians. The bodies are burned, we are continuing to look for others."

The village had about 300 inhabitants, according to an official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

Al Jazeera's Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar in neighbouring Senegal, said Malian troops were deployed at the village "trying to secure the area and to ensure there are no more attacks happening in the villages nearby".

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Worsening violence

Violence between the Dogon and Fulani has compounded an already dire security situation in Mali's semi-arid and desert regions, which are used as a base by armed groups with ties to al-Qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The Fulani are primarily cattle breeders and traders, while the Dogon are traditionally sedentary farmers.

On May 16, the United Nations mission in Mali (MINUSMA) announced it had recorded "at least 488 deaths" in attacks on Fulanis in the central regions of Mopti and Segou since January 2018.

In the bloodiest raid, about 160 Fulani villagers were slaughtered in March at Ogossagou, near the border with Burkina Faso, by suspected Dogon hunters.

MINUSMA said that, also since January 2018, armed Fulanis had "caused 63 deaths" among civilians in the Mopti region.

"It's a shock, a tragedy," MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said of the latest bloodletting, noting that it came at a time "when we are discussing the renewal of the (MINUSMA) mandate".

Some 14,700 troops and police are currently deployed in Mali, which ranks as the most dangerous UN mission, with 125 peacekeepers killed in attacks since deployment in 2013.

Donor countries to MINUSMA are to meet at the UN on Wednesday. A decision on renewing the force's mandate is expected by June 27.

Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, Annadif expressed regret that the Malian authorities had not been present enough in the area to prevent such violence.

Last week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had warned of a "high risk" of atrocities and called on the government to strengthen its response to armed groups.

"If these concerns are not addressed, there is a high risk of further escalation that could lead to the commission of atrocity crimes," he wrote in a report to the UN Security Council.

In Monday's statement, the Malian government expressed its condolences and said "every measure will be taken to arrest and punish those responsible for this bloodshed."

"Reinforcements are currently deployed in the sector and carrying out a wide-ranging search," it said in a statement.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

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