Mali’s government on Monday confirmed at least 132 civilians were killed in multiple militant attacks on villages in central Mali over the weekend, reported The TRTWorld.
In a statement, the government said extremist rebels from the Katiba Macina group, which is affiliated with al-Qaeda, assaulted at least three villages in the rural commune of Bankass, in Mali’s central Mopti region, on the night between Saturday and Sunday.
As per the statement, the killings took place in Diallassagou and two nearby villages, Diaweli and Dessagou, in Mali’s central region, which has long been mired in insecurity. A large part of the area is beyond state control and is prone to violence by self-defense militias and inter-community reprisals.
It added that at least 132 civilians were killed and some of the perpetrators have been identified.
In related news, A United Nations (UN) peacekeeper was killed by a mine blast in northern Mali on Sunday as he was participating in a patrol. The peacekeeper, who was part of a Guinean contingent, got injured and later succumbed to his injuries at the UN’s MINUSMA mission’s hospital.
Mali is struggling to stem a militant insurgency that took root after a 2012 coup and has since spread from the West African country’s arid north. Thousands have died and millions have been displaced across the Sahel region.
The insurgency has also spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger despite international efforts led by France to quash it.
In February, France said it would pull out troops deployed to Mali almost a decade ago after relations with a military junta that took power after a coup in 2020 turned sour earlier this year.
The military ousted the civilian government in August 2020 over its inability to halt the violence and has said the restoration of security is its priority. The country is currently ruled by a military junta that had promised to return power to civilians by February 2022 but subsequently delayed the timetable, prompting sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
