Africa story of the week – Updated weekly
Ethnic attacks in Mali killed 18 civilians this week: peacekeeping mission
MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) fighters around Tessit, Gao in
At least 18 civilians were killed in two related attacks this week in central Mali, the United Nations MINUSMA peacekeeping mission said on Saturday, as the death toll from fighting between local hunters and herders continues to climb.
MINUSMA did not identify the assailants in the attacks on a Dogon ethnic community in the Mopti region.
The region has been engulfed in a conflict between Dogon hunters and Fulani herders that killed hundreds of civilians in 2018 and is spreading across the Sahel, the arid region between the Sahara desert to the north and Africa’s savannas to the south.
MINUSMA said a number of Dogons were killed in an ambush on Wednesday, while other members of the same community were killed on Thursday as they tried to retrieve the bodies from the previous day’s attack. One Fulani civilian was also killed, it said.
