17th July, 2018
UN says 289 Malian civilians have been killed in fighting between rival militias in six months.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said at least 289 civilians have been killed in 99 incidents of communal violence since the start of the year, according to investigations by UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
Rupert told newsmen in Genexa that more than 75 per cent of the incidents occurred in Mali’s central Mopti region, adding that more than half taking place since May 1.
“MINUSMA has documented…an escalation of attacks allegedly carried out by Dozos (traditional hunters) and elements of Dogon militias against villages or parts of villages occupied primarily by members of the Fulani community,” Colville said.
Dozos, also known as Donzos, have been enmeshed in a long-running conflict with Fulani herders over land, grazing grounds and water rights.
Colville said, earlier this month, Dogon militia fighters allegedly killed 16 Fulani civilians during a raid on a village, with some reportedly shot inside the local mosque and others burned alive in their houses,
He said fulani militia and an al Qaeda-linked jihadist group with close ties to Fulani communities have in turn targeted Dogon and Bambara civilians.
The jihadists’ exploitation of ethnic tensions to win recruits and use of Mali as a launch pad for attacks into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso has alarmed former colonial power France and the United States, who have deployed thousands of troops to the region.
France intervened in Mali’s desert north in 2013 to drive back Islamist militants who were threatening to march on the south’s main population centres, but they have since regained a foothold in the north and semi-arid center.
Mali’s government has repeatedly said the polls, in which incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is seeking re-election, will go ahead as planned, but the relentless violence threatens to significantly depress turnout.
Malians head to the polls on July 29 for a vote meant to draw a line under six years of political
unrest, jihadist attacks and ethnic clashes.
But the situation has degenerated in recent months and spilled over into neighbouring countries.