BAMAKO, Aug 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Seventeen people, including five traditional hunters, were killed this weekend in the Bandiagara region of central Mali in two attacks attributed to “terrorists”, the region’s governor said in a statement shared Monday.
The first attack took place on Saturday in the village of Bodio, leaving fifteen dead, including three traditional Dozo hunters, and two injured.
On Sunday a motorbike carrying two hunters hit a mine near the village. They “died immediately”, the statement said.
Jihadist violence that started in northern Mali in 2012 spread to the centre of the country in 2015, when Katiba Macina — an Al Qaeda-affiliated group — was established, led by the Fulani preacher Amadou Kouffa.
Various armed groups have been formed in response.
The best known is the Dogon militia Dan Nan Ambassagou, which is made up of traditional hunters like those killed in the attacks.
On Thursday, several Malian soldiers were killed in an ambush by jihadists affiliated to the Islamic State group.
The attack took place in the northeast of Mali, near the Menaka region.
They were escorting trucks towards neighbouring Niger, according to military and police officials.
Niger has also been plagued by jihadism and on July 26 underwent a military coup.
The Islamic State in the Greater Sahel (ISGS) has for several months been making inroads in the Menaka region.
According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, attacks by that group have claimed “hundreds” of lives and forced thousands of people to flee since the start of the year.
Mali is led by a junta that seized power in 2020 and has turned away from former colonial power France and towards Russia, both politically and militarily.
The attacks occured one day after the handover of the Ogossagou camp, a military base in Bandiagara, to the Malian government from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali.
The United States Security Council on June 30 unanimously approved the complete withdrawal of UN peacekeeping forces in Mali in the next six months, at the request of the Malian authorities. — NNN-AGENCIES
