Armed men kill 40 people in brutal attacks on several villages in Mali

Unidentified armed men massacred 31 civilians in simultaneous attacks on several Mali villages this week, then killed nine soldiers responding to the assault as violence surges in the country’s conflict-wracked center.

A Takfiri insurgency that erupted in the north of the vast West African country in 2012 has swept to its center, inflaming ethnic tensions along the way.

Clashes between the ethnic communities of Fulani, nomadic herders, and Dogon traditional hunters have increased in recent months, with community-based militias — initially formed for defense — now launching attacks.

Armed uniformed men traveling in pick-up trucks attacked four Dogon villages on Wednesday, one local official said by telephone, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The attack left at least 30 dead, including women, children, and the elderly, while others were missing, the official added.

“From 3 to 9 pm, nobody came to our rescue,” said Youssouf Tiessogue, an elder from Gouari, one of the villages attacked.

Deploring the army’s “inaction,” he said: “It is always late and never confronts the bandits even if we tell them where they are.”

A senior government official called the attacks “barbaric”.

Officials did not immediately blame any group.

A military unit was dispatched to the area and helped bury 31 bodies on Wednesday, army spokesman Colonel Diarran Kone told AFP.

Unrest in central Mali has killed nearly 600 civilians this year, the United Nations said last month.

Mali’s war erupted in 2012 when Tuareg rebels supported by armed Takfiris took over the country’s desert north.

The rebels were then outmaneuvered by their Takfiri allies and the French military intervened to force them back.

The conflict has since traveled south, as well as spilling into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, igniting a tinderbox of ethnic resentment and stoking fears for the future of the fragile nation.