Gunmen killed at least 20 civilians in several villages north of Gao, Mali, on Saturday, a police officer and a local official told AFP.
“Criminal terrorists killed at least 20 civilians in several villages in the Anchawadj district on Saturday,” a regional police official a few dozen kilometers north of Gao said by phone, anonymously.
Another local authority confirmed 24 civilian deaths and blamed the jihadists for the attack.
The Gao region has been the scene of violence since the conflict began in 2012, when armed rebel groups revolted against Bamako. In 2015, they signed a difficult-to-implement peace agreement with Mali.
Since 2012, Mali has been the scene of attacks by self-defense militias and so-called thugs, as well as by jihadist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
Violence spread to the center and then to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Despite the mobilization of forces from the UN, France and several African countries, thousands of civilians and soldiers were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
source: Noticias
[author_name]
