134 killed in attack on Fulani villagers in Mali

134 killed in attack on Fulani villagers in Mali

"Armed men reportedly dressed as traditional hunters have killed 134 people, including women and children, during an attack on a village in central Mali.
A further 55 civilians were hurt in the attack in Ogossagou in the Mopti region.
The region's Fulani ethnic community is frequently targeted and accused of having ties to jihadist organizations in the area, according to the UN.

The Malian government said it "reiterates its determination to make every effort to hunt down the perpetrators of this barbarity of another age and to punish them, in accordance with the laws in force."
"In the same spirit, the government will continue to ensure the protection of the people, to recreate the conditions of true social cohesion and to promote national reconciliation," it added, saying the "government condemns with the utmost severity this heinous act and expresses its compassion to the families of the innocent victims."
[...]"

For the moment I don't understand the situation in Mali enough to have a clear understanding of what happened but it seems awful. People were shot dead or killed with machetes. Apparently some people have been burned and they disemboweled pregnant women.

Some additional reading/sources with more information:

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Apparently this attack was retaliation for the villagers having ties to AQIM which had committed an attack on a Malian military base the prior week which left 23 Malian soldiers dead. Unfortunate though as even if some of them were complicit in aiding AQIM I highly doubt that all ~160 were involved. Especially the children and elderly.

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You know I was not offended at all that this post had no replies. But thanks for the links, I didn't know the death toll had risen to 157... I have to admit that it puts our "small" (but still terrible) occidental shootings into perspective.

Neah wrote:

You know I was not offended at all that this post had no replies. But thanks for the links, I didn't know the death toll had risen to 157... I have to admit that it puts our "small" (but still terrible) occidental shootings into perspective.

No problem, and yeah I was also surprised the death toll had risen since all the major headline reports only reported on the event initially. And yeah although it puts most American shootings in perspective I think part of the reason the toll is much larger is due to the fact that most American shootings are pretty much never coordinated with multiple attackers and the fact that during this attack the attackers encountered no armed resistance (no police/military response or armed civilians)