AFRICA.MALI: At least 16 locals were killed in a mid-week coordinated attack by waylaying Islamic jihadists terrorizing some parts of Mali.
“The killings took place in the evening between Wednesday and Thursday with the same modus operandi: assailants on motorbikes who came into the camp, shot at people indiscriminately from close range, then take away their livestock,” a local source close to the authorities in Menaka said.
The first attack targeted a nomadic camp about 50 kilometres (30 miles) away from Menaka, the region’s capital, The attack led to the death of 12 people, mostly nomads.
In another attack the gunmen besieged a normal camp located at Inekar Tadriante, killing five people.
Leaders of the Tuareg nomadic community posted on social networks in recent days of “massacres of civilians” by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS), affiliated to the Islamic State group, which operated in the border regions between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
The source totalled the death toll from the two attacks to 16.
The region where the attacks took place has become vulnerable and unstable since Tuareg separatist rebels stood against the Malian government in 2012.
Thanks to a French-led force that subdued the rebel group from totally taking over Bamako in 2013. Despite this, the group has devised several means of launching attacks on harmless citizens and armed security officials.
In 2015, the Tuareg separatists and the Malian government agreed to a peace pact. Though, it is yet to be applied.
Apart from separatist groups, Mali also suffers attacks from other jihadist groups, making its security architecture more weaker, especially in the northern part of the country.
A recent report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the so-called three-border region with Niger and Burkina Faso had seen a “significant deterioration” in security.
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