BAMAKO (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least 134 Fulani herders in central Mali on Saturday, a local mayor said, the deadliest such attack of recent times in a region reeling from worsening ethnic and jihadist violence.

The assaults on the villages of Ogossagou and Welingara took place as a U.N. Security Council mission visited Mali seeking solutions to violence that killed hundreds of civilians last year and is spreading across West Africa’s Sahel region.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, said armed men, dressed as traditional Donzo hunters, encircled and attacked Ogossagou at about 4 a.m. (0400 GMT).

“We are provisionally at 134 bodies recovered by the gendarmes,” Guindo told Reuters by telephone from Ogossagou.

He said another nearby Fulani village, Welingara, had also been attacked, causing “a number” of deaths, but he did not yet know how many.

Security sources said the dead included pregnant women, children and elderly people.

One Ogossagou resident, who asked not to be identified, said the attack appeared to be in retaliation for an al Qaeda affiliate’s claim of responsibility on Friday for a raid last week that killed 23 soldiers.

That group said that raid was payback for violence by Mali’s army and militiamen against the Fulani.

Jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited ethnic rivalries in Mali and its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years to boost recruitment and render vast swathes of territory virtually ungovernable.

French forces intervened in Mali, a former French colony, in 2013 to push back a jihadist advance from the desert north but the militants have since regrouped and expanded their presence into central Mali and the neighbouring countries.

Some 4,500 French troops remain based in the wider Sahel, most of them in Mali. The United States also has hundreds of troops in the region.

Security Council ambassadors met with Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and other government officials on Friday evening to discuss the violence and the slow implementation of a 2015 peace agreement with non-Islamist armed groups.

“Clear sense of frustration among many Security Council members at pace of implementation of Mali Peace Agreement,” Britain’s representative on the mission, Stephen Hickey, wrote on Twitter. “Security Council prepared to impose sanctions on those who impede its implementation.”</s>Dr Nnamdi Ogueche, a senior lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka has been allegedly killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Enugu State.

He was killed along Ezeagu- Umulokpa Uzo-Uwani road in the State.

Shortly before his death, Ogueche was said to have presided over a peace meeting between his kinsmen of Adada town Uzo-Uwani and Fulani herdsmen.

Suleiman Balarabe, the Enugu State Commissioner of Police confirmed the killing while briefing journalists at the headquarters of the State Police Command yesterday.

Balarabe described the incident as unfortunate, saying investigation was ongoing.

“We’re yet to ascertain if Fulani herdsmen carried out the heinous killing,” he added.

The slain University don was the Administrative Secretary of Uzo- Uwani LGA, Enugu State.

He was aged 40 and was married with three children, two girls and a boy.</s>More than 130 people were killed in an attack on a Fulani village in central Mali on Saturday, the United Nations has said, as a delegation visited the country.

Survivors accused traditional Donzo hunters of carrying out the deadly raid in Ogossagou, according to Boubacar Kane, the governor of Bankass district which covers the village.

"The Secretary-General is shocked and outraged by reports that at least 134 civilians, including women and children, have been killed," Farhan Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement, adding that the UN chief called on Malian authorities "to swiftly investigate it and bring the perpetrators to justice".

The attack was launched at dawn on Saturday in the village near the border with Burkina Faso, according to local officials. The district has been the scene of frequent intercommunal violence.

Witnesses told AFP news agency the attackers burned down nearly all the huts in the village.

Guterres's spokesman said the UN mission in Mali, MINUSMA, provided air support to deter further attacks and assisted with the evacuation of the injured.

The massacre took place as a delegation from the UN Security Council visited the Sahel region to assess the security situation of the area.

Earlier, the UN said the visiting ambassadors from the Security Council countries met on Saturday with Mali's Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga and discussed with him the volatile situation in the centre of the country.

Donzo hunters are part of the Bambara, Mali's largest ethnic group. The semi-nomadic Fulani people are dispersed throughout the Sahel region and West Africa.

Saturday's attack is believed to be the latest in a series of clashes between the communities of Donzo and Fulani - also known as Peul - that have left dozens dead in recent months.

In January, Donzo hunters were blamed for the killing of 37 people in a Fulani village.

The violence is incited by accusations of grazing cattle on Donzo land and disputes over access to land and water, but the area is also troubled by the influence of armed groups, who the Fulani are accused of being tied to.

Armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) have exploited ethnic rivalries in Mali and its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger to boost recruitment and render vast swaths of territory in the Sahel region virtually ungovernable.</s>A group of gunmen who disguised themselves as traditional hunters have surrounded a Mali village and killed at least 134 Fulani herders.

Key points:

 Pregnant women, children and the elderly were among those slain

 The attack may have been in retaliation after an Al Qaeda-linked group killed 23 soldiers

 Jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited ethnic rivalries in Mali

 It was the deadliest such attack of recent times in a region reeling from worsening ethnic and jihadist violence.

The Fulani ethnic group are semi-nomadic, primarily Muslim and live in various West African nations.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, said armed men, dressed as traditional Donzo hunters, encircled and attacked Ogossagou.

“We are provisionally at 134 bodies recovered by the gendarmes [military police],” Mr Guindo said.

He said another nearby Fulani village, Welingara, had also been attacked, causing “a number” of deaths, but he did not yet know how many.

Security sources said the dead included pregnant women, children and elderly people.

The armed attacks took place as a United Nations Security Council mission visited Mali seeking solutions to violence that killed hundreds of civilians last year and is spreading across West Africa’s Sahel region.

One Ogossagou resident, who asked not to be identified, said the attack appeared to be in retaliation, after an Al Qaeda affiliate claimed responsibility for a raid last week that killed 23 soldiers.

That group said that raid was payback for violence by Mali’s army and militiamen against the Fulani.

Jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited ethnic rivalries in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger in recent years to boost recruitment and render vast swathes of territory virtually ungovernable.</s>Armed men reportedly dressed as traditional hunters have killed 134 people, including women and children, during an attack on a village in central Mali.

A further 55 civilians were hurt in the attack in Ogossagou in the Mopti region.

The region’s Fulani ethnic community is frequently targeted and accused of having ties to jihadist organizations in the area, according to the UN.

The Malian government said it “reiterates its determination to make every effort to hunt down the perpetrators of this barbarity of another age and to punish them, in accordance with the laws in force.”

“In the same spirit, the government will continue to ensure the protection of the people, to recreate the conditions of true social cohesion and to promote national reconciliation,” it added, saying the “government condemns with the utmost severity this heinous act and expresses its compassion to the families of the innocent victims.”

On Sunday, Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar and the Council of Ministers announced the dissolution of a so-called self-defense group, according to a government communique. The communique did not note whether this group was to blame for the attack in Ogossagou.

The group, called Dan Na Ambassagou, is composed of members of the Dogon ethnic group. Last year, Human Rights Watch accused Dan Na Ambassagou of targeting members of the Fulani ethnic group and attacks that “led to dozens of civilian deaths and injuries.”

UNICEF said it was providing assistance to victims of the attack.

“Many of the injured children have been evacuated to health facilities for treatment. UNICEF is on the ground helping provide first aid, medicines and therapeutic food,” Executive Director Henrietta Fore said.

“Mali’s children are paying the highest price for the intensifying violence in central Mali. Since 2017, rising insecurity has led to an increase in the killing, maiming and recruitment of children. Gender-based violence is on the rise,” Fore added.

The Mopti region of Mali has seen repeated instances of violence in recent months.

Several soldiers were killed in Dioura last week, while 10 people from the Dogon community were killed in an attack on the village of Gondogourou in February.

A UN spokesperson said the organization’s secretary general António Guterres was “shocked and outraged” by Saturday’s attack.

“The Secretary-General condemns this act and calls on the Malian authorities to swiftly investigate it and bring the perpetrators to justice,” the spokesperson said, adding that he “calls on the Malian authorities to redouble their efforts to bring back peace and stability to central Mali.”

There are nearly 3 million Fula people in Mali, who are traditionally nomadic and mostly Muslim.</s>BAMAKO: Gunmen killed at least 134 Fulani herders in central Mali on Saturday, a local mayor said, the deadliest such attack of recent times in a region reeling from worsening violence.

The assaults on the villages of Ogossagou and Welingara took place as a U.N. Security Council mission visited Mali seeking solutions to violence that killed hundreds of civilians last year and is spreading across West Africa’s Sahel region.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, said armed men, dressed as traditional Donzo hunters, encircled and attacked Ogossagou at about 4 a.m. (0400 GMT).

“We are provisionally at 134 bodies recovered by the gendarmes,” Guindo told Reuters by telephone from Ogossagou.

He said another nearby Fulani village, Welingara, had also been attacked, causing “a number” of deaths, but he did not yet know how many.

Security sources said the dead included pregnant women, children and elderly people.

That group said that raid was payback for violence by Mali’s army and militiamen against the Fulani.

French forces intervened in Mali, a former French colony, in 2013 to push back a militant advance from the desert north but the militants have since regrouped and expanded their presence into central Mali and the neighbouring countries.

Some 4,500 French troops remain based in the wider Sahel, most of them in Mali. The United States also has hundreds of troops in the region.

Security Council ambassadors met with Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and other government officials on Friday evening to discuss the violence and the slow implementation of a 2015 peace agreement with non-Islamist armed groups.

“Clear sense of frustration among many Security Council members at pace of implementation of Mali Peace Agreement,” Britain’s representative on the mission, Stephen Hickey, wrote on Twitter. “Security Council prepared to impose sanctions on those who impede its implementation.”</s>More than 130 people were killed in an attack on a village in central Mali

More than 130 people were killed in an attack on a village in central Mali on Saturday by armed men wearing traditional Dogon hunters’ clothing.

According to BBC,Gunmen surrounded the village at dawn before attacking people in their homes in Ogossagou in the Mopti region.

The attackers targeted members of the Fulani ethnic community who are accused of having ties to jihadists.

The attack took place while UN ambassadors were in Mali to discuss increased violence.

The Security Council mission met Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga to talk about the increased threat from jihadist fighters in central Mali.

The victims of Saturday’s deadly attack were “killed with guns and machetes”, a local security official told AFP news agency.

Witnesses also told AFP that nearly all the huts in the village had been burned down.

The mayor of the neighbouring village of Ouenkoro, Cheick Harouna Sankare, described the attack as a “massacre”.</s>More than 100 killed in Mali militia attack - reports

More than 100 killed in Mali militia attack - reports

Dignitaries visit the Malian army's military base in Menaka region on Friday

More than a hundred people, including pregnant women and small children, have reportedly been killed by an ethnic militia in Mali.

Armed men dressed as traditional Donzo hunters assaulted people in the central villages of Ogossagou and Welingara, the mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, Moulaye Guindo, told Reuters.

The village chief of Ogossogou and his grandchildren are said to be among those slain in the ethnic Peulh community.

"The body count continues by the gendarmes, who have just told me they have found 110 bodies, but the count continues," Mr Guindo said.

The president of a local group called Tabital Pulaaku said the victims "included pregnant women, young children and the elderly", the AP news agency reported.

Islamic extremists have been growing in prominence in central Mali since 2015.

Worsening ethnic and jihadist violence led to hundreds of civilian deaths last year.

Militants from the Dogon ethnic group have been blamed for scores of recent attacks, according to Human Rights Watch.

A group called Dan Na Ambassagou is said to comprise a number of self-defence organisations from Dogon villages and others.

Members of the Dogon grouping have accused Peulhs of supporting jihadists linked to terror groups in the country's north and beyond.

If the death toll is confirmed, this latest attack will be the worst of recent times.

It took place as a UN Security Council mission visited Mali to find solutions to the violence.

The UN mission confirmed reports of an attack but did not give figures on the number of dead.

The destabilisation of the region is damaging tourism.

Mali's Dogon country, which boasts dramatic cliff landscapes and world-renowned traditional art, once drew tourists from Europe who hiked through the area with local guides.</s>BAMAKO (Reuters) - Gunmen killed about 60 Fulani herders in central Mali on Saturday, a local mayor said, in one of the deadliest such attacks in a region reeling from worsening ethnic and jihadist violence.

The assault on the village of Ogossagou came as a U.N. Security Council mission visited Mali to try to find solutions to violence that killed hundreds of civilians last year and is spreading across West Africa’s Sahel region.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass, said the armed men, who were dressed as traditional Donzo hunters, encircled and attacked Ogossagou at about 4 a.m. (0400 GMT).

“It’s a very heavy death toll,” he told Reuters. “The village of Ogossagou is completely devastated.”

One village resident, who asked not to be identified, said the attack appeared to be in retaliation for an al Qaeda affiliate’s claim of responsibility on Friday for a raid last week that killed 23 soldiers.

The group said the raid was payback for violence by Mali’s army and militiamen against the Fulani.

Jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State have exploited ethnic rivalries in Mali and its neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger to boost recruitment and render vast swaths of territory virtually ungovernable.</s>DAKAR (Reuters) - A Mali-based al Qaeda affiliate has claimed responsibility for an attack on an army base that killed 23 Malian soldiers last week, its media arm said in a statement on Friday, citing violence against Fulani herdsmen as the motive.

Violence by Islamist militants has proliferated in the sparsely populated Sahel in recent years, with groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State using central and northern Mali as a launchpad for attacks across the region.

Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) - an umbrella group for al Qaeda-linked militants in West Africa and the Maghreb - disrupted Mali’s presidential election in July 2018, launched a spate of attacks in neighbouring Burkina Faso and killed 10 Chadian peacekeepers in Mali earlier this year.

The most recent strike took place last on Sunday in the village of Dioura, in the central Mopti region, when gunmen attacked and briefly seized an army base.

“This raid comes in response to the heinous crimes committed by the forces of the formal Bamako government, and the militiamen that support it, against our Fulani people,” said JNIM in a statement on Friday.

Mali has been in turmoil since 2012, when Tuareg rebels took over the north and advanced towards the capital, Bamako.

A French-led intervention pushed them back the following year, but Islamist groups have since regained a foothold in the north and centre, tapping into ethnic rivalries between nomadic Tuareg and Fulani herders to recruit new members.

Dozens of Tuareg and Fulani civilians have been killed in spate of attacks that have grown increasingly frequent over the past year, spurring a spiral of violence that has displaced thousands.
At least 160 Fulani herdsmen are killed in an attack on the villages of Ogossagou and Welingara by Dogon militia in Mali.