Sad news coming in from the West African Nation of Mali led by Colonel Assimi Goitta indicates one hundred and thirty-two (132) civilians were killed by a terrorist group in an operation in a village yesterday, sending shockwaves not only in Mali but across West Africa.
The terrorist group behind the killings have been identified as Macina Liberation Front, an Islamist group founded in 2015.
According to reports culled by MyNewsGh.com, on the night of June 18th to 19th, the group attacked several villages in the Bankass circle in the Bandiagara region in the center of the country killing the civilians who were defenseless and unarmed, the Malian government said in a press release.
“The government of the Republic of Mali has the deep regret to inform that the peaceful populations of the villages of Diallassagou, Dianweli, Deguessagou and surroundings in the circle of Bankass were the object of cowardly and barbaric terrorist attacks, in the night from June 18 to 19, 2022,” said Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, government spokesperson, in the press release.
Maiga specifies that “the cumulative toll shows 132 civilians coldly killed by the Katiba fighters of Macina of Amadou Kouffa, several of whom, among the perpetrators, have been formally identified”.
The government “reassures that all measures will be taken to find and bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice”, affirming that the protection of people and their property remains “its absolute priority”.
