Attacks, ethnic killings leave ghost villages in central Mali

AFTER years of ethnic massacres and unrelenting jihadist attacks, central Mali has been left a harrowed area of deserted villages and displaced people.

An Islamist insurgency erupted in the north of the vast west African state in 2012, claiming thousands of military and civilian lives since.

But the violence has since swept into the center of the country -- as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger -- inflaming ethnic tensions along the way.

Central Mali is now prey to tit-for-tat killings and routine jihadist attacks. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.

Mamadou Lamine Diop, who works in central Mali for the United Nations’ refugee arm, said the situation “has not stopped deteriorating.”

Armed groups coming from the north found fertile soil in an area riven by long-running land disputes, often between herders and farmers.

A jihadist group active in the region led by radical Fulani preacher Amadou Koufa has also increased suspicion of his ethnic group.

In response to jihadists, traditional Dogon hunters have formed socalled self-defense groups, adding to the tension.

“Every day, word gets back to us of an extremely serious incident,” Diop said, explaining that people are displaced after each one.

Many Fulani villages now lie empty.