An attack this week on a town in a violent region bordering Burkina Faso and Niger by members of an Islamic State offshoot in Mali killed nearly 30 civilians, a coalition of pro-government militia reported on Friday (September 10).
The Gao region has been a hotspot for jihadist and militia violence, as per the coalition, also known as Platform, which said that several hundred militants attacked its fighters and forced them to flee on Tuesday, earlier this week.
The killing of women and children who had been starving for two days in the town was discovered when reinforcements sent by the platform arrived.
Also read | Mali accuses France of arming Islamic terrorists seeking to destabilise nation
It claimed the incident elicited no immediate claims of responsibility.
The platform, in an online statement, said that the militants killed three of its fighters and robbed stores, and burnt food supplies in addition to targeting the locals, Reuters reported.
Since 2012, when Islamists seized control of a Tuareg ethnic revolt in the north, Mali has experienced turmoil. The Islamists have expanded over the Sahl region of West Africa, displacing more than two million people from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, killing over a thousand people.
Also read | Mali: Over 130 civilians killed by suspected jihadists
The month of March this year saw concern by the United Nations about the deteriorating security situation in central Mali. The peacekeeping forces in Mali reported the deaths of hundreds of its people in a wave of strikes by the Islamic State Group.
For months, conflicts between jihadist groups as well as jihadists and other armed groups have devasted several regions of Gao and Menaka.
(With inputs from agencies)
WATCH WION LIVE HERE
