Five civilians were killed Monday in the attack on a village in central Mali by armed attackers who came by motorbikes, we learned from several local sources. A gendarme was killed in another attack on a toll station, according to the Minister of Communication. “The village of Guemeto-Terely, in the commune of Sangha, was attacked between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. The attack lasted almost two hours and the death toll is five and twenty people missing, " said a resident speaking on condition of anonymity. “The attackers were on about forty motorcycles, all armed. They burned granaries, looted grain stocks, killed five people and left with cattle, " said another resident. A security source said that this village, located some 80 km from the border with Burkina Faso, had been taken "under fire" by attackers, without giving an assessment.
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The mayor of Sangha, Aly Dolo, pointed the finger at members of the Fulani community. "They burned food, animals and huts, granaries and hangars," he said, but there was nothing to independently corroborate the communal nature of the attack. “A first plane (from the army) came to make a reconnaissance. Another came later, but there was no confrontation between the army and the attackers, " he added. A toll booth outside the town of Bla, also in the center, was also "attacked by armed individuals on motorbikes" on Monday, communications minister Yaya Sangaré said on Twitter, while reporting a "provisional assessment of a gendarme killed" and one injured.
Whirlwind of violence
Central Mali has been caught up in a whirlwind of violence since 2015 and the appearance of a jihadist group led by Peul preacher Amadou Koufa, who has largely recruited from his community and joined the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Clashes have multiplied between the Peuls, mainly breeders, and the Bambara and Dogon ethnic groups, who mainly practice agriculture. Thirty armed men stormed and sowed death overnight Thursday through Friday in the village of Ogossagou, also in the center, where 160 Peuls had already been massacred in March 2019. Thirty-one villagers were killed this time, according to the government.
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In addition to these community abuses and reprisals, Mali is in the grip of a jihadist push which, starting from the north, reached the center of the country then Burkina Faso and Niger neighbors. Some 500 civilians were killed in the center in 2019 alone, the deadliest year for civilians since 2012, according to Human Rights Watch.