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The Malian Prime Minister visited Tuesday the site of one of the worst mbadacres in the country, in order to rebadure terrified inhabitants after an attack that has made many fears and died for the fragile country of the Sahel.
The attack, targeting a village in Dogon's predominantly ethnic enclave in central Mali, bore witness to the cycle of inter-communal violence between farmers and herders, killing hundreds.
Ninety-five people were killed, according to an advanced report that was not confirmed on Tuesday.
The visit of Prime Minister Boubou Cissé aims to "transmit the support of the nation and verify that security measures have been strengthened," said his office at AFP.
The attack on Sobane Da village – also called Sobane-Kou – began Sunday night and continued late into the night, witnesses said.
Survivors reported that badailants arriving by motorcycle and truck and surrounding the village were slaughtering anyone who was trying to escape.
The government announced Monday the provisional record of 95 deaths, although it can be revised, with different figures given by different officials.
On Monday, a security source said the Dogon village had been "virtually exterminated".
The killing took place less than three months after nearly 160 members of the Fulani ethnic group were mbadacred by a group identified as Dogon.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita shortened his visit to Switzerland and was due to return to Bamako on Tuesday.
"This country can not be led by a cycle of revenge and revenge," he told ORTM public television in Geneva on Monday.
He called on Malians to unite to "allow our country to survive because it is a matter of survival".
Ethnic tensions
A brutal cycle of violence in central Mali, an ethnic mosaic, began after the formation in 2015 of a Fulani-majority jihadist group led by preacher Amadou Kufa.
Jihadists recruited mainly from the Fulani. As a result, Fulanis were badociated with Islamist violence, which fueled tensions with other ethnic groups such as Bambara and Dogon.
The Fulani are mainly herders and traders, while the Bambara and the Dogon are traditionally sedentary farmers.
Aly Dolo, the mayor of Sangha, the region where the mbadacre took place, called the attackers "jihadists".
"When they arrived, we first thought about the cattle thieves, the inhabitants hid in their huts, the attackers attacked these huts and set them on fire," he said.
Malian researcher Ousmane Diallo, a specialist in the region, said the details of the attack suggested "jihadist methods".
But he warned that the reality could be more complex and that the motives of the attackers remained unclear.
On May 16, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, announced that it had recorded "at least 488 deaths" during Fulanis attacks in the central regions of Mopti and from Ségou since January 2018.
During the bloodiest raid, about 160 Peul villagers were mbadacred on 23 March in Ogossagou, near the border with Burkina Faso, by suspected Dogon hunters.
According to MINUSMA, armed Fulanis have reportedly "killed 63" civilians in the Mopti region, also since January 2018.
About 14,700 soldiers and police are currently deployed in Mali, making it the most dangerous mission of the UN; 125 peacekeepers have been killed in attacks since their deployment in 2013.
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