Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Fulani are semi-nomadic herders
More than 100 people have been killed in an attack on a village in central Mali by armed men wearing traditional Dogon hunters' clothing, reports say.
Gunmen surrounded the village before attacking people in their homes in Ogossagou in the country's Mopti region, a local official said.
The attack on Saturday targeted members of the Fulani ethnic community.
Ambassadors for the UN are currently in Mali addressing the increasing levels of ethnic and jihadist violence.
The victims of Saturday's deadly attack were "killed with guns and machetes", a local security official told AFP news agency.
The mayor of the neighbouring village of Ouenkoro, Cheick Harouna Sankare, described the attack as a "massacre".
Clashes between Dogon hunters and semi-nomadic Fulani herders can occur over access to land and water.
The Dogon also accuse Fulanis of ties to jihadist groups. The Fulanis claim that Mali's military has armed the hunters to attack them.
Last year, hundreds of people died in clashes between Dogon hunters and members of the Fula ethnic group.
On Friday, a Mali-based al-Qaeda affiliate said it had carried out an attack last week on a military base that left more than 20 soldiers dead.
The group said it was in response to violence against Fulani herdsmen.
Levitupper on March 24th, 2019 at 01:19 UTC »
Can someone ELI5 who the bad guy is here? The first part of the article seemed to imply this was for some kind of ethnic cleansing against Mali, the middle part explicitly stated that Mali has Al Qaeda in it, and the last part said Al Qaeda attacked the Dogon recently in response to more Mali conflict? This appears to be very confusing and I feel like I'm being pulled in a couple different directions.
Edit: got some group names mixed up.
Edit2: guys, I'm fully aware you can't split up such a complex issue into bad guys and good guys. I know this isn't a video game. I'm typing in general terms because I didn't feel like typing out "can I get a detailed explanation of the detailed economic/cultural/political strain between these groups I know nothing about so I can make my own decision about their transgressions against each other?" I asked for an ELI5.
wizardofthefuture on March 23rd, 2019 at 23:58 UTC »
Evil like this shouldn't exist on our planet.
fluffspeed on March 23rd, 2019 at 23:47 UTC »
It's sad that this will not be big news to many. Loss of life is always something to at very least acknowledge. I can't imagine this was at all painless.