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More Than 95 People Killed In Central Mali

Between 2012 and 2015 however, Mali has been awash with arms, following the militant Islamic uprising in the Northern part of the country in 2012.

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In continued clashes over resources between the Dogon ethnic group and Fulani herders in Mali, no fewer than 95 persons were killed Monday in the village of Sobane-Kou, in the central part of the country. The settlement is inhabited by the former.

The Dogon are a hunting and farming community, while the Fulani tribe roam large swathes of West Africa in search of thinning grass and water for their cattle.

Moulaye Guindo, mayor of neighbouring Bankass, informed Reuters news agency that Fulanis from that district attacked Sobane-Kou after nightfall.

"Right now we have 95 dead civilians. The bodies are burned, we are continuing to look for others," a local official in the Koundou area, where the village is located, told the AFP agency.

The BBC reports in March that armed men dressed in traditional Dogon hunters’ outfit killed 130 Fulani villagers. These reprisals are long standing. They were previously settled by negotiations. 

Between 2012 and 2015 however, Mali has been awash with arms, following the militant Islamic uprising in the Northern part of the country in 2012.

The story is not dissimilar in Northern Nigeria, where rampaging herders have destroyed large hectares of crops and killed lots of people in the process. 

Reprisals have often followed with cattle rustling becoming a trend as well. Global human rights group, Amnesty International, said in a report- ‘Harvest of Death,’ that at least 3,641 persons were murdered in attacks and reprisals within three years in Nigeria.