United Nations, (EFEUSA) .- The interethnic attack perpetrated this Saturday against the town of Ogossagou, in the center of Mali, has left at least 150 dead, according to the latest figures offered on Monday by the United Nations.
The UN, which has a peace mission deployed in the country, said its “blue helmets” collaborated during the weekend in the evacuation of wounded people, but did not offer a specific number.
The United Nations mission, which has reinforced its presence in the area, is also in charge of supporting the visit to the place of the Malian president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, scheduled for Monday, said the spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
In a statement, the head of the UN, António Guterres, condemned the massacre and demanded a quick investigation from the Malian authorities.
The victims are members of the Peul ethnic group, allegedly killed by Bambara ethnic hunters traditionally known as “donzos”.
Among the deceased in Ogossagou, a village of shepherds from the Mopti region, there are numerous elders, women and children, who could not escape the “donzos”, who had surrounded the village and burned nearly 400 houses.
A delegation from the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) will meet with authorities in Mali this week to investigate the massacre, the prosecutor of the Hague-based court, Fatou Bensouda, announced Monday.
The Mopti region was the scene of intermittent clashes between rival Tuareg groups or between hunters and pastoralists over the past year for control of the land, and for religious reasons, as hunters accuse the Peul of having links with them. local jihadist groups.
The NGO Human Rights Watch warned that during 2018 more than 200 civilians were killed and dozens of villages were set on fire in central Mali as a result of attacks by militias formed by ethnic groups in the area. (EFEUSA)
