Nearly 100 killed in central Mali village attack

BAMAKO, Mali - Nearly 100 people were killed in a gruesome overnight attack on a village in central Mali, in the latest violence to strike the fragile region, officials said on Monday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the massacre, targeting a village inhabited by the Dogon community, bore the hallmarks of tit-for-tat ethnic attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives.

It came less than three months after nearly 160 members of the Fulani ethnic group were slaughtered by a group identified as Dogon.

"Right now we have 95 dead civilians. The bodies are burned, we are continuing to look for others," said an official in Koundou district, where the village of Sobane-Kou is located.

The government, giving a provisional toll, said 95 people had been killed, 19 were missing, numerous farm animals had been slaughtered and homes had been torched.

"Armed men, suspected to be terrorists, launched a murderous attack on this peaceful village," it said in a statement.

A Malian security source at the site of the massacre said: "A Dogon village has been virtually wiped out."

The Malian government expressed its condolences and said "every measure will be taken to arrest and punish those responsible for this bloodshed".

'No one was spared'

A survivor who gave his name as Amadou Togo said: "About 50 heavily armed men arrived on motorbikes and pickups.

"They first surrounded the village and then attacked - anyone who tried to escape was killed.

"Some people had their throats cut or were disemboweled, grain stores and cattle were torched. No one was spared - women, children, elderly people."

The local official said the village had a population of about 300.

An association of Dogon traditional hunters, called Dan Nan Ambassagou, deplored the "barbaric and vile" attack which it described as tantamount to genocide.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack, his spokesman said on Monday.

In a note to the press, Stephane Dujarric said Guterres is outraged by the reports that at least 95 civilians, including women and children, were killed and many injured following the attack.

Guterres appealed to all Malian stakeholders to show restraint and to refrain from retaliatory acts, and urged the government and all actors to engage in intercommunal dialogue to resolve tensions and differences, he added.

Just a week earlier, Guterres warned of a "high risk" of atrocities and called on the Malian government to strengthen its response to extremist 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.

Afp - Xinhua

(China Daily 06/12/2019 page11)