BAMAKO (Reuters) - At least 15 Tuaregs were killed when armed men from a rival ethnic group attacked their village in northern Mali, local authorities said on Wednesday.

Clashes between mostly lighter-skinned Tuareg and black Fulani herdsmen, often over land and watering points, have killed dozens of civilians this year.

That has compounded an already dire security situation in the country’s north, where attacks by jihadist groups are common.

Tuesday’s raid on a remote desert village in the Menaka region near the border with Niger killed 16 people, Bajan Ag Hamatou, a member of parliament from the area, told Reuters.

“Armed men entered a Tuareg campsite and killed all the men they found,” Hamatou said. “They were attacked by their Fulani brothers.”

The mayor of the nearby town of Menaka, Nanout Kotia, said the attack killed 15 or 16 Tuaregs and appeared to have been motivated by inter-ethnic tensions.

Islamist militants seized Mali’s desert north in 2012. French forces intervened the following year to wrest back control, but fighters with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have since regrouped.

They have tapped into the ethnic rivalries to recruit new members and their frequent attacks in Mali and nearby countries have alarmed Western powers.

In the north of neighboring Burkina Faso, eight soldiers were killed on Wednesday when their vehicle hit a land mine, a security source told Reuters. The area, which borders Mali, has seen a sharp increase in such attacks in recent months.</s>Clashes between Tuareg and Fulani herdsmen, often over land and watering points, have killed dozens of civilians this year

 (Updates Burkinabe soldier death toll to eight)

BAMAKO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - At least 15 Tuaregs were killed when armed men from a rival ethnic group attacked their village in northern Mali, local authorities said on Wednesday.

Clashes between mostly lighter-skinned Tuareg and black Fulani herdsmen, often over land and watering points, have killed dozens of civilians this year.</s>BAMAKO (Reuters) - At least 15 Tuaregs were killed when armed men from a rival tribe attacked their village in northern Mali, local authorities said on Wednesday.

Clashes between mostly lighter-skinned Tuareg and black Fulani herdsmen, generally over land and watering points, have killed dozens of civilians this year.

That has compounded an already dire security situation in the country’s north, where attacks by jihadist groups are common.

Tuesday’s raid on a remote desert village in the Menaka region near the border with Niger killed 16 people, Bajan Ag Hamatou, a member of parliament from the area, told Reuters.

“Armed men entered a Tuareg campsite and killed all the men they found,” Hamatou said. “They were attacked by their Fulani brothers.”

The mayor of the nearby town of Menaka, Nanout Kotia, said the attack killed 15 or 16 Tuaregs and appeared to have been motivated by inter-ethnic tensions.

Islamist militants seized Mali’s desert north in 2012. French forces intervened the following year to wrest back control, but fighters with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have since regrouped.

They have tapped into the ethnic rivalries to recruit new members and their frequent attacks in Mali and neighbouring countries have alarmed Western powers.

An armoured vehicle carrying French forces in the northern Kidal region set off a mine on Wednesday but no one was hurt and it was not immediately clear who was responsible, four local residents told Reuters.</s>BAMAKO, Mali — A Tuareg leader says armed men on motorcycles have attacked a nomadic community near Mali’s border with Niger, killing at least 12 civilians.

Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, secretary-general for the Tuareg self-defence group, said Wednesday the attack targeted men in the Iboghilitane community about 45 kilometres (28 miles) west of Menaka.

The violence risks setting off a new cycle of intercommunal clashes in the Menaka region where 100 civilians have already been killed this year.

Menaka governor Daouda Maiga says patrols have been sent to investigate.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Ag Acharatoumane said community residents include many members of the Islamic State organization. He said the attack may have been in retaliation for one by extremists a few months ago on the Idarfane community.</s>At least 12 Touareg civilians died Tuesday in an attack by gunmen in eastern Mali, a region hit by chronic unrest between local tribes and jihadist militants, sources said.

About 200 people, many of them civilians from the Fulani and Tuareg tribes have been killed in the area this year as militants claiming allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) clash with local groups backing a French security force and the Malian army.

The attack took place 45 kilometres (28 miles) west of Menaka according to a local official, a security source, and a statement by ex-rebels in the Movement for the Salvation of Azawad (MSA).

"Armed men on motorcycles killed at least 12 civilians," the official told AFP, citing a resident of the town who claimed to have seen the bodies.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous, added that "for now we do not know exactly who did it. I don't know if it was the result of a dispute between tribes or a terrorist act."

The security source said some of his sources spoke of 12 dead, while others put the toll at 16.

The MSA statement said "armed individuals on motorcycles had executed 17 civilians" from two Tuareg camps.

Mali's unrest stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.</s>At least 27 people have died following recent attacks by Fulani militants on mainly Christian communities in northeast Nigeria, according to World Watch Monitor.

One of them was a pastor, and many of them drowned as they attempted to escape by crossing a river.

The attacks took place between September 13 and 16, in the same area where 3,000 homes were destroyed in December 2017.

A local pastor who wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons told World Watch Monitor that 27 people had been buried following the latest attacks, which targeted communities along the Benue River. He said that on hearing sounds of guns, many villagers fled into the bush or drowned attempting to escape via the river. Ten people are still missing.

'Nobody knows the whereabouts of these people missing. Since their dead bodies are not found, it is too early to declare them dead. We will give them the benefit of doubt; maybe some of them may return home to their families,' he said.

Rev Gerison Ezekiel Killa, 43, of the Boiki Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, was one of those who drowned. He is survived by his wife and six children.

More than 45 others were injured. The assailants also looted and burned down many homes, and stole cattle.

Rahab Solomon, a survivor from Bolki village, said the attackers stormed their community at about 3 pm and began shooting indiscriminately.

'We couldn't go back home because we were told that our house was burnt. So we came to stay in this camp,' she said.

'The next day [September 14] we called my husband's brother and he told us that the Fulani chased our people and killed so many of them. Those who tried to run through the river were shot and many who tried to escape through the river, but could not swim, died as well; those who could swim were able to survive. We heard that over 25 bodies were recovered from the river. The exact number of people who died in the attack is yet to be known as the place is still under attack.

'We were told that the Fulani militants burnt down all our houses, and some women and children who hid in the farms were abducted by the Fulani. We no longer have a place to call home. Right now we are helpless.'

Another survivor, Jidauna Igiya, the head of Gon village, said they had heard gunshots at around 4 pm on Sunday September 16. 'Everybody in the village sought cover and began to run for safety, as the Fulani were shooting and burning houses.

'The Fulani burnt all our houses. No house is standing right now and we cannot go back to our villages.'

He said they had taken the cattle, looted and burnt everything they could not take away.

'Twenty-six people were killed in our village, Gon, while two others were wounded,' he said. 'During the attack, we tried to call security forces but none came to our rescue. We managed to put our families, children, women and old people through the bush and that is how we were able to be saved.'

He said most of those who had tried to escape across the river had drowned.

The state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Bishop Stephen Mamza, blamed government inaction and said innocent Christians were being 'killed by these so-called herdsmen on a daily basis, without security forces responding appropriately to stop them from hurting Christians'.</s>Twenty-seven people were killed in clashes between members of the same Tuareg tribe in Mali's troubled northeast earlier this week, the West African state's security ministry said Thursday.

Previous reports said 12 people had died in the violence on Tuesday, which took place in a region near the Niger border affected by chronic unrest between local tribes and jihadist militants.

"Clashes occurred in the area of Inekar, 45 kilometres (28 miles) west of the town of Menaka, between members of the Idourfane community," a Tuareg tribe, the ministry said in a statement.

"This unfortunate event has unfortunately cost the lives of 27 people, and injured one."

Army troops supported by police have been deployed to the region to stabilise the situation and "find out the motive for such a violent outburst within a single community".

A local official earlier said that "armed men on motorcycles killed at least 12 civilians," citing a resident of the town who claimed to have seen the bodies.

The official, who asked not to be named, added that "for now we do not know exactly who did it. I don't know if it was the result of a dispute between tribes or a terrorist act."

About 200 people, many of them civilians from the Fulani and Tuareg tribes, have been killed in the area this year.

It has been a violent week for Mali, one of Africa's poorest states, after seven soldiers and a civilian driver were killed in the centre of the country on Wednesday when their vehicle hit explosives.

Mali's unrest stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

The extremists were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

But despite a 2015 peace agreement between the government and the Tuareg rebels, large stretches of the country remain out of the control of Malian, French and UN forces, which are frequent targets of attacks.

Jihadist violence, meanwhile, has spread from northern Mali to the centre and south and spilled into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, often exacerbating communal conflicts.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was re-elected in August after vowing to restore peace to the restive north of the Saharan country.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, Keita admitted the regional G5 Sahel armed force had struggled to become "operational" and called on financial contributors to "honour their commitments".

On Thursday, France sent 120 paratroopers to the Menaka region.
At least 15 Tuaregs are killed when armed men from a rival ethnic group (Fulani) attack their village in northern Mali, according to local authorities.