Militants kill at least 31 people in attack on bus taking people to market in Mali
Militants killed at least 31 people in central Mali on Friday when they fired on a bus taking people to a local market.
It is the latest deadly attack in a region racked by violent insurgency.
The bus was hit by unidentified gunmen as it travelled its twice-weekly route from the village of Songho to a market in Bandiagara, 10 kilometres away, said Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass.
“Armed men ... shot at the vehicle, slashed the tyres and shot at the people,” Mr Guindo said.
He and another local official said that at least 31 people were killed, with many more wounded or missing.
The villages are in the heart of the Mopti region, a centre of violence fuelled by insurgents linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS.
An internal security memo shared by a source said that first responders at the scene of the latest attack discovered 25 burnt bodies in the vehicle.
Images on social media showed the smouldering frame of a passenger bus filled with bodies slumped over in their seats.
The authenticity of the images posted online could not be independently verified.
Militant attacks have increased sharply across Africa’s Sahel region, killing thousands and displacing millions in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
The UN mission Minusma has sent about 13,000 troops to try to contain the violence, while France is in the process of reorganising a counterinsurgency force from about 5,000 troops to 3,000, that will be supported by a mix of European special forces and focused on training the Malian army.
Minusma has recorded more than 250 fatalities since it started in 2013, making it the most dangerous UN peacekeeping mission in the world.
Unidentified armed men attacked a convoy belonging to Minusma on Friday, killing a civilian worker and wounding another person, the mission said.
The convoy was travelling from the northern city of Kidal to Gao and came under fire about 100km north-east of the town of Bourem, the UN peacekeeping mission said.