60 people killed in attack on Mali's Peul village: Mayor

Traditional Dogon hunters killed at least 60 people in an attack on a Peul community village in central Mali on Saturday, military and local officials said. "At least 60 Peul civilians have been killed Saturday in the village of Ogossagou by traditional hunters, said a military source. Cheick Harouna Sankare, the mayor of neighbouring Ouenkoro, confirmed the toll. News agency Reuters reported that gunmen killed about 60 Fulani herders, in one of the deadliest such attacks in a region reeling from worsening ethnic and jihadist violence.

The assault on the village of Ogossagou came as a U.N. Security Council mission visited Mali to try to find solutions to violence that killed hundreds of civilians last year and is spreading across West Africa’s Sahel region.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, said the armed men, who were dressed as traditional Donzo hunters, encircled and attacked Ogossagou at about 4 a.m. (local time).

“It’s a very heavy death toll,” he told Reuters. “The village of Ogossagou is completely devastated.”

Jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited ethnic rivalries in Mali and its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger to boost recruitment and render vast swaths of territory virtually ungovernable, the news agency added.