Nearly 100 people killed at central Malian village

Around 100 people were killed in an overnight attack at a central Malian village inhabited by the Dogon community. It is to be noted that the attack took place in Sobane-Kou.

According to a local official, the bodies of dead civilians have been burned and the death toll may further increase. In the meantime, a Malian security source at the site of the massacre stated that the Dogon village has been virtually wiped out. The security official further said that the attackers came and started shooting, pillaging and burning.

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However, it was not immediately clear who carried out the attack.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of Bankass, told local reporters that Fulanis from that district had attacked Sobane-Kou after nightfall. Importantly, clashes between Dogon hunters and semi-nomadic Fulani herders are frequent. Also known as Peul, the Fulani are cattle breeders and traders, while the Bambara and Dogon are traditionally sedentary farmers. Both sides accuse the other of carrying out attacks amid the unrest.

Last month, the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA) had said that it recorded 488 deaths in attacks on Fulanis in the central regions of Mopti and Segou since January 2018. In March this year, over 130 Fulani villagers were killed by armed Dogon hunters in the same region.

In the bloodiest raid, at least 160 Fulani villagers were killed in March at Ogossagou, near the border with Burkina Faso, by suspected Dogon hunters. Weeks later the attack, all the ministers in the government stepped down over their failure to disarm Islamist militants, who continue to stage attacks six years after France helped Malian forces stave off a jihadist insurgency in the country's restive north.