At least 25 people have lost their lives after several unidentified armed individuals attacked seven villages in the Bandiagara region, in the center of the country, last night. According to local sources, the alleged jihadists attacked the villages on board the electric motorcycles and tricyclesthey burned shops and barns and they stole cereals, animals and motorcycles.
The attacked towns, where the ethnic pig (traditional hunters), are Madina, Banguel Toupé, Gaza, Massasegué, Sonfounou, Irguelou and Bourari, in this last village there are at least fifteen dead. According to sources, the alleged jihadists usually attack the Donso and members of the Malian Defense and Security Forces, but they can sometimes attack villages with which they have signed agreements in exchange for paying a fee. religious tax so as not to be attacked.
No official Malian source has so far commented on the attack.
Unstable region
This country in the unstable Sahel region has been governed since 2020 by a military junta that has so far not offered a date for holding elections, in a context marked by instability and the strong violence that the country has suffered for more than a decade due to the actions of local jihadist groups loyal to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Added to this is the resumption more than a year ago of clashes in the north of the country between the Malian Army – supported by the Russian mercenary company Wagner– and the independence rebels -dominated by the Tuaregs and the Arabs-, who aspire to claim a new State in the extensive desert area of Azawad.
