Mali has for over a decade been ravaged by militants and other armed groups
\n BAMAKO
\nAn attack blamed on militants in central Mali killed more than 20 civilians on Monday, two local officials said, in the latest killings in the troubled Sahel region.
\nMali has for over a decade been ravaged by militants and other armed groups, with the center of the West African country becoming a hotbed of violence since 2015.
\n\u201cAt least 21 civilians have been killed\u201d in the village of Djiguibombo, several dozen kilometers (miles) from the town of Bandiagara, an official from the provincial authority said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
\nHe attributed the attack to militants.
\nAnother provincial authority official, who spoke overnight, said about 20 people had been killed and the security situation prevented authorities from going to the site.
\nBut a local youth representative said the army had arrived afterwards.
\nBoth local authority sources asked not to be identified given their positions. Since the junta came to power in 2020, information about such incidents is not generally made public.
\nThe attack began before nightfall and \u201clasted around three hours,\u201d the youth representative said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
\n\u201cTwenty people have been killed. More than half are young people. Some victims had their throats cut,\u201d the source said.
\n\u201cMany inhabitants fled toward Bandiagara. Those who stayed were not even able to bury the dead properly,\u201d he said.
\nThe deteriorated security context, remote locations and a lack of reliable information mean that attacks often take a long time to confirm.
\nMali has since 2012 been plagued by different factions affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, as well as by self-declared self-defense forces and bandits.
\nThe militant violence that started in the north spread to the center of the country in 2015, when Katiba Macina \u2014 an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group \u2014 was established, led by the Fulani preacher Amadou Kouffa.
\nHuman rights groups regularly denounce widespread impunity for attacks on civilians.
\nRadical Islamist groups impose pacts on local populations under which they are allowed to go about their business in return for paying a tax, accepting Islamic rules and not collaborating with the Malian army or other armed groups. Communities are subject to retaliatory measures in the event of non-compliance.
\nThe violence spilled over into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, with military regimes seizing power in all three countries.
\nThousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the violence.
\nSince taking power in a 2020 coup, Mali\u2019s military rulers have broken off their anti-militant alliance with France and European partners, while turning politically and militarily toward Russia.
\nThe junta has enlisted the services of what it presents as Russian military instructors, but who, according to a host of experts and observers, are mercenaries from the private Russian company Wagner.
\nBamako regularly claims to have gained the upper hand against the militants, as well as separatists in the north.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mali has for over a decade been ravaged by militants and other armed groups BAMAKO An attack blamed on militants in central Mali killed more than 20 civilians on Monday, two local officials said, in the latest killings in the troubled Sahel region. Mali has for over a decade been ravaged by militants and other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-416235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n