Mali: eight civilians killed near Bandiagara in the center of the country

Jihadist fighters in Mali (Illustration).

AP Photo / File

Text by: David Baché

3 min

Tuesday evening, a bus from Mopti was targeted by armed men about thirty kilometers from Bandiagara, in the Dogon country.

The toll is heavy: eight dead.

This is an area that has already been targeted last month by several jihadist attacks, and where the army has subsequently been accused of abuses.

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Of the thirty passengers on the bus attacked Tuesday evening between Parou and Songabia, eight were killed, including two babies, said a source within the Malian army.

An assessment confirmed by the United Nations Mission in the country which indicates that it took care of ten lightly wounded and seven seriously injured, evacuated to Bandiagara.

Minusma also deployed a patrol to secure the premises after the attack.

Attack which has not, for the moment, been claimed, but which occurs three weeks after those which targeted

.

Eleven soldiers killed and then 13 civilians in the attack on a bus, according to the official report.

The bus was attacked at almost the same location as the one that was targeted last night.

The GISM, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims, linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility.

Operation of the Malian army

The Malian army immediately launched a vast anti-terrorist operation in the area.

Known as Yelema, this operation aimed at " 

 " lasted two weeks.

It has, according to the army, mobilized " 

 " and planes.

This operation made it possible to " 

 " - hence to kill or capture - combatants and to recover equipment, according to the army, which did not communicate a final assessment.

But it has also given rise to

 : around twenty inhabitants of the village of Libbé have thus been executed, and a large part of the village burned, according to several community associations (Kisal, Tabital Pulaaku) which denounce an " 

 ”by the military against the Fulani ethnic group, suspected of collusion with jihadist groups.

Local elected officials confirm these allegations, but not the army, which speaks of " 

 " and even indicates having been hung up by a terrorist group near this village, during its operation.

Minusma's human rights cell has opened an investigation.

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