According to two local sources, suspected jihadists killed over 20 people in a series of attacks on villages in the Mopti region of central Mali, which is rife with insurgency, on Friday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said on Saturday that the unidentified attackers ransacked and set fire to six villages in the Bandiagara area during the day and into the evening.
A report from one of the sources states that the attackers arrived in big groups on motorcycles and attacked a first village, killing everyone and destroying everything in their path.
The ruling military junta did not immediately comment.
Armed groups with ties to Islamic State and al Qaeda have taken root in the country’s arid north after a Tuareg separatist uprising in 2012, and the West African nation is currently fighting these groups.
Since then, militants have expanded to other Sahelian nations south of the Sahara, capturing land, displacing millions of people, and killing thousands.
