At least 21 dead in suspected terrorist attack in central Mali

4 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least 21 people have been killed in an alleged attack by the terrorist organisation Macina Liberation Front, founder of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), an al-Qaeda branch operating in Mali, against the town of Djiguibombo, located in the central region of Bandiagara.

The attack took place on Monday evening during a wedding celebration, but the death toll is still provisional due to the chaos caused by the destruction of the village, which is predominantly Dogon, according to Radio France International (RFI) after consulting numerous local sources.

Local citizens have confirmed that people are missing and that the attackers set fire to houses, granaries and the health centre, as well as taking away livestock. They then attacked the nearby village of Sokorokanda, killing two others.

JNIM often carries out such actions in the region, and they tend to increase during the rainy season, which begins in June and ends in September, especially against those villages that refuse to accept their demands and which usually host dozo hunting posts, which often act as self-defense groups.

Mali and the rest of the Sahel countries have experienced an upsurge in violence, both jihadist at the hands of branches of Al Qaeda and Islamic State, and inter-community, amid reports of abuses by the army and mercenaries deployed by the Wagner Group to support Bamako in dealing with insecurity.

This situation has led Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all three governed by military juntas, to create the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) as a way of increasing cooperation in the fight against terrorism outside the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a bloc from which they have distanced themselves following the sanctions imposed following the series of coups d’état between 2020 and 2023 that overthrew elected presidents and ended the military in power.