31killed in ethnic violence in central Mali
Al-Qaeda-linked militants claim responsibility for Kangaba resort attack
BAMAKO: Thirty-one people were killed over the weekend in central Mali as ethnic groups clashed over land in a zone where the state is near-absent and jihadists roam freely.
Nomadic Fulani people and farmers from the Dogon ethnic group have engaged in tit-for-tat violence sparked by Fulanis grazing their cattle on Dogon land.
Dogons also accuse Fulanis in the area of colluding with cleric Amadou Koufa, whose followers recently joined the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, a jihadist alliance with links to Al-Qaeda.
The Malian army confirmed “31 dead, (comprising) 27 Fulanis and four Dogons,” along with nine more injured, in a statement released Monday night.
The army said it had spoken with mayors, village chiefs and imams to persuade them to halt the violence in the Mopti region.
But a local official in the area said the absence of the government in the area had created a vacuum where jihadists were thriving.
“The absence of the authorities in this part of the country because of the presence of jihadists like Koufa facilitates this kind of behavior,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
A resident of the area described a “revenge attack” by Dogons against two Fulani villages, following the widely reported murder of a Dogon in a fight last week.
Increased availability of arms from Libya has contributed to inter-communal violence in Mali, experts say, while drought has forced herders into areas traditionally cultivated by farmers.
Human Rights Watch said in April that herder and farmer groups “have long had disputes and misunderstandings over access to water and land,” but cautioned that the proliferation of armed groups meant such disputes “have become increasingly deadly.”
Meanwhile, an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist alliance claimed responsibility Monday for an attack on a tourist resort near Mali’s capital that left five people dead, including members of a EU mission to the country.
The Group to Support Islam and Muslims, a fusion of jihadist groups with previous Al-Qaeda links, said in a statement three of its “martyrs” had killed Westerners in Sunday’s assault on the Kangaba resort.
The group, also known as Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam WalMuslimeen in Arabic, said the attackers were from the Fula ethnic group and battled for “many hours” at the popular eco-lodge near Bamako, which it termed a site of “debauchery.”
Their statement was quickly picked up by extremist monitor SITE and two Mauritanian news agencies known for reporting on the region’s jihadist activity, after being posted on the group’s Telegram channel.
Three foreigners, a Malian civilian and a Malian soldier were killed in the latest high-profile assault in north and west Africa targeting locals and tourists, including in neighboring Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.
Witnesses said EU and UN staff raised the alert to speed up the deployment of Malian and French special forces when the shooting began at Kangaba.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, speaking in Luxembourg, confirmed two of the victims were EU staff, a Portuguese soldier who was training troops in the Malian army and a Malian woman.
Prosecutor Boubacar Sidiky Samake said other victims were a Le Campement Chinese man, a Malian woman and a Portuguese man who died from bullet wounds, while a man from Cameroon died of a heart attack at the scene.
Samake also announced that a criminal investigation has been opened and that Kalashnikovs, a pistol and ammunition had been retrieved from the attack. site of the