Over 40 killed in attack near Mali's border with Niger
Suspected jihadists, on motorcycles, have killed at least 42 people during a series of attacks on Tuareg nomadic camps in Mali yesterday. Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, a Tuareg self-defense official, said the attacks took place Tuesday and Wednesday in the sprawling West African nation's eastern Menaka region. The victims, which included children as young as eight, were members of his group known as MSA.
Clashes in Menaka have already killed 100 civilians this year
MSA has been fighting militants with ties to the Islamic State group who are active in the region. This week's violence risks setting off a new cycle of intercommunal clashes in the Menaka region, where 100 civilians have already been killed this year.
Four men held for planning attacks in major West-African capitals
In September, similar motorcycle gangs attacked a nomadic community near Mali's border with Niger, killing at least 12 civilians. Meanwhile, Mali's authorities said yesterday they had arrested four men accused of planning attacks before the end of the year in several major West African capitals such as the cities of Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Bamako in Mali and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.
The four were involved in Colombian nun kidnapping, authorities said
The statement by the Malian authorities implicated about the men in March attacks in Ouagadougou and said their group had become "a recruitment operation" for Islamic-inspired terrorists. The intelligence services also said a preliminary investigation "proved that the four terrorists also participated in the kidnapping of Colombian nun Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez" who was abducted in February 2017.
