Fighters in central Mali have killed at least 134 villagers in the latest deadly attack blamed on an ethnic militia, local authorities said.
The massacre in Ogossogou on Saturday left the village chief and his grandchildren dead in the ethnic Peulh community, according to a local official who had received detailed accounts from the remote area.
The victims “included pregnant women, young children and the elderly” according to Abdoul Aziz Diallo, president of a Peulh group known as Tabital Pulaaku.
In the capital of Bamako, visiting UN security council president Francois Delattre condemned the killings as an “unspeakable attack” late on Saturday.
At least 55 people were wounded and the UN mission in Mali said it was “working to ensure the wounded were evacuated”.
Militants from a Dogon group known as Dan Na Ambassagou have been blamed for scores of attacks over the past year, according to Human Rights Watch. The umbrella group comprises a number of militia groups from the Dogon villages among others.
The growing prominence of Islamic extremists in central Mali since 2015 has unravelled relations between the Dogon and Peulh communities.
Members of the Dogon group accuse the Peulhs of supporting these jihadists linked to terror groups in the country’s north and beyond. Peulhs have in turn accused the Dogon of supporting the Malian army in its effort to stamp out extremism.
In December, Human Rights Watch had warned that “militia killings of civilians in central and northern Mali are spiralling out of control”. The group said that Dan Na Ambassagou and its leader had been linked to many of the atrocities and called for Malian authorities to prosecute the perpetrators.
The dramatic cliff landscapes and world renowned traditional art of Dogon country once drew tourists from Europe and beyond, who hiked through the villages with local guides. The region, though, has been destabilised in recent years, as has much of central Mali.