Mali’s military government says Islamist militants have killed 132 civilians in the central Mopti region in one of the deadliest militant attacks in a decade.
Mali has declared three days of mourning after militants suspected of being Islamist militants killed 132 villagers in the central Mopti region.
The attack on three villages on the evening of June 18 was one of the deadliest since the conflict in Mali began in 2012.
The government’s statement was read on state television ORTM on Monday evening to host Mariam Kone.
She says that the Government condemns in the strongest possible terms attacks and abuses against civilians. Koné says the government is assuring that every step will be taken to find and bring to justice the perpetrators of these criminal acts.
The Mopti attack was the latest in a series of attacks on civilians in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso.
Last week in Burkina Faso, gunmen killed 86 civilians in an attack in the northern Seitenga region.
The UN mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, condemned the attacks in central Mali in a statement Monday evening.
The statement notes that recent attacks have also taken place in several districts of Gao province, killing dozens of civilians.
Local authorities told AFP this week that 24 civilians were killed in Ebaka, Mali, 35km north of the region’s capital.
A local political movement reported that on June 12, Islamist militants killed 22 people in Isingaz in the Menaka region.
The military government of Mali did not comment on the growing instability and violence in the northern regions of the country.
The increase in violence comes as the French military is in the process of withdrawing from the region due to Mali working with Russian mercenaries.
Human Rights Watch and news reports quote local residents as saying that the Malian army and Russian mercenaries killed hundreds of civilians in Mura, in central Mali, in March.
The military denies killing any civilians, says there are only Russian “instructors” in Mali, and says more than 200 Islamist militants died in the Mura attack.
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