At least 11 civilians killed in northeast Mali: Group

Suspected Takfiri terrorists have killed at least 11 civilians in Mali’s troubled northeast, a group says.

According to a statement by a pro-government coalition of armed groups on Saturday, the attack by unidentified assailants killed 11 Tuareg civilians at Agharangabo near Menaka.

The group, known as the 'Plateforme des Mouvements du 14 juin 2014 d'Alger,' added that the attack occurred on Thursday.

Agharangabo and Menaka are part of a large part of the African country where the central government has little or no control, and which is prey to regular assaults from Takfiri terrorists.

Agharangabo is located some 65 kilometers northwest of Menaka.

The group announced the list of the 11 victims of the attack, saying that the livestock of the victims had also been stolen by the assailants.

“These are summary executions of 11 civilians by unidentified armed men,” a local elected official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

“It happened on Thursday in the course of three attacks on civilians in this zone.”

Suspected terrorists kill 4 UN peacekeepers in northern Mali: UN

At least four UN peacekeepers have been killed in a suspected terrorist attack in northern Mali, the UN mission says.

Mali has been struggling to quell a Takfiri revolt that first broke out in the north in 2012, before spreading to the center, as well as neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of troops and civilians have so far lost their lives in the conflict, while many more have been forced to flee their homes.

Central Mali has become one of the flashpoints of conflict in the country, with regular Takfiri attacks on military targets and occasional inter-communal fighting.

Six civilians killed in French strike in northern Mali

Local officials say the French military, purportedly on counter-terrorism missions in Mali and neighboring countries, has killed six civilians in an airstrike in the northern part of the West African nation.

Takfiri terrorist groups, linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh, have strengthened their foothold across the arid Sahel region, making large swathes of territory ungovernable and stoking local ethnic violence.

The United Nations declared in July 2020 that the spread of terrorist attacks in West Africa was so fast that the region had to consider bolstering its response beyond current military efforts.

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