At least 26 villagers killed in violent attack in central Mali

At least 26 people were killed after an armed group attacked a village in Mali’s central region, near the border with Burkina Faso, a government official said Monday, the latest violent attack in the conflict-hit region.

The assailants attacked villagers as most of them worked in their farmlands in the Dembo village on Sunday evening, said Moulaye Guindo, the mayor of Bankass town where Dembo is located.

Such attacks are becoming increasingly frequent in central Mali as the country’s military junta also struggles to contain violence in the northern region.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack, but the blame quickly fell on JNIM, an extremist group linked to Al Qaeda that often targets villagers in the region in a similar manner, including in July when rebels attacked a wedding ceremony and killed at least 21 people.

The armed violence across central and northern Mali has raged on for more than a decade. Extremist rebels who were once forced from power in northern cities with the help of recently expelled French troops have regrouped and launched attacks on remote villages and security forces.

A 2015 peace deal with ethnic Tuareg rebels active in the north has also collapsed, deepening the security crisis.