Mali
Malian authorities have detained five people suspected of taking part in the massacre of at least 157 villagers, a prosecutor said on Friday, following one of the worst attacks in Africa’s Sahel region in living memory.
The March 23 raid by suspected hunters from the Dogon community on Ogossagou, a village in central Mali populated by rival Fulani herders, was part of a wider surge in ethnic and jihadist violence across Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Prosecution for violent acts related to conflict in the Sahel is rare, and widespread impunity is among the reasons communities take it upon themselves to exact revenge in tit-for-tat killings.
“Among the wounded taken care of by the medical service, five were formally recognized by others who had been wounded as being among the assailants,” Aza Ould Mohamed Nazim, a prosecutor in the Mopti region, told Reuters.
He said the five had been transported to the capital Bamako and placed under guard.
The United Nations dispatched human rights experts to the area this week to investigate the killings, and the International Criminal Court also said the crimes could fall under its jurisdiction.
Go to video
Rwanda: 30 years later, the chilling story of genocide survivors
01:37
Vice President Shettima Conveys Solidarity and Condemnation Amidst Tragedy
02:20
Sudanese artist paints war time emotions to protest Sudan's war
01:39
Ethiopian MPs approve state of emergency in Amhara region
Go to video
Ethiopia: humanitarian aid "hindered" in Amhara, denounces the WHO
00:56
UN reports newly discovered mass grave in Darfur