Violent Armed groups attacked three villages in central Arid near the Niger border, killing at least 51 people and injuring several others, local officials said. The villages of Ouatagouna, Karou, and Deouteguef were simultaneously attacked around 6 pm on Sunday, according to a memo sent to the Governor of Gao by the Asongo area manager, Homes were investigated and burned, and herds of livestock stolen, Reuters reported. “51 provisional dead, several injured,” he said.
No group is yet responsible for attacks that have occurred in areas where the Malian Armed Forces, French and European groups, and UN peacekeepers are fighting rebels in collaboration with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.
Marie Army spokesman Colonel Sulei dem Bele confirmed the attack but did not provide further details.
Another local source told Reuters it was stationed at the entrance to the radical village and fired indiscriminately at civilians.
Manager Mali Army said they were clearing the area. He also asked for military escort, according to the memo, “to help with the funeral, to reassure the residents, and to express condolences to the bereaved.”
Mali, a landlocked and poor country in the heart of the Sahel region of West Africa, has been fighting jihadist uprisings since 2012. The crisis began with unrest in the northern part of the country, which unfolded as an unstable center for the Mali people. After that, to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso. The militant group linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group is leading the campaign today.
Thousands of civilians and military were killed, and hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes. Several houses were swept away in two coup d’états since August last year, and on July 20, military leader Colonel Asimi Koita survived an assassination attempt at a mosque in Bamako.
Reporting to the United Nations, Alioune Tine, an independent expert on human rights in the Sahel, warned last week that “serious limits” had been broken in the country’s security situation. At the end of the 11th visit, he said, “the failure of state institutions’ and jihadists’ “Brutal attacks by civilians,” he said. The military itself wielded violence against civilians.
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