‘Mali rebellion opponents’ destroy 17 Tuareg civilians

Suspected rebels indulge in killed as a minimal 17 civilians belonging to the Tuareg ethnic personnel in northern Mali, factual days after Forty Tuaregs had been killed all over a identical raid on nearby villages, authorities articulate.

The attacks happened on Tuesday in the village of Tindibawen, 160km east of the town of Menaka attain the border with Niger, and in a nearby village, Nanout Kotia, mayor of Menaka, informed Reuters news agency.

Violence has escalated in most up-to-date months as armed groups, once confined to the faraway north of the west African nation, indulge in exploited ethnic tensions to recruit Fulani herders and delay their presence additional south.

Fulani herders indulge in attain into struggle with Tuareg pastoralists over entry to scarce water parts.

In most up-to-date months, Tuareg civilian defence groups, supported by French troopers, indulge in fought against al-Qaeda-linked opponents in northeastern Mali.

The attacks in the villages might maybe well additionally be an are trying to additional exploit tensions between Tuareg and Fulani herdsmen.

Mali has been combating lawlessness in the north since Tuareg rebels and al-Qaeda-linked opponents sought to settle control there six years ago.

Tuareg rebels declared independence in April 2012, factual a month after President Amadou Toumani Toure was once pushed out in a coup.

But three months later they lost ground to Ansar Dine, a personnel with hyperlinks to al-Qaeda that imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic legislation on the local population, accomplishing amputations and executions.

In early 2013, France intervened militarily to succor Malian authorities forces to settle inspire the placement.

Two years later, Mali’s authorities and Tuareg rebels signed a peace deal.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies