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Sobane Da massacre | |
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Part of the Northern Mali conflict | |
Location | Sobane Da, Mopti Region, Mali |
Coordinates | 14°28′1.9″N3°8′46.7″W / 14.467194°N 3.146306°W |
Date | June 10, 2019 |
Deaths | 35 confirmed dead [1] |
On 10 June 2019, the Dogon village of Sobane Da in Mali was attacked. Moulaye Guindo, mayor of neighbouring Bankass, blamed a Fulani militia group. The attack killed 35 people, revised from an earlier claim of 95 killed with 19 missing. A survivor said the attackers numbered about 50, driving motorbikes and pickup trucks. [1] [2] [3] The government of Mali has suspected that terrorists have committed the attack. [4]
The Fulanis who are traditionally herders and the Dogon who are traditionally farmers have had a historic dispute over grazing land and water which has been exacerbated by the spread of jihadism in Mali. The Dogon have accused the Fulani of supporting Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups operating in Mali, while the Fulani have accused the state of sponsoring the Dogons to attack them. [5] MINUSMA had recorded 488 Fulani deaths in attacks by Dogon, and 63 Dogon deaths from Fulani attacks during the period from January 2018 to 16 May 2019 in the Mopti and Ségou Regions. The deadliest was the Ogossagou massacre. [6] The Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and Amadou Koufa had promised retaliation by Fulanis. [7]
The attack on Sobane-Da began on 9 June and continued for seven hours. The perpetrators came on motorbikes and besieged the village, killing people and burning homes. The head of the village, Gouno Dara, has said that the attackers shot everyone they encountered and were repeatedly shouting "Allahu Akbar". Dara adds that they burnt buildings and stole domestic animals before retreating. A security source said that the village had been practically razed. Malian researcher, Ousmane Diallo, has commented that the attack bears the hallmarks of jihadists. [8]
Earlier the government had given a provisional death toll of 95 based on claims by some soldiers and the mayor of the district, Ali Dolo. [9] Doubts however started appearing on this figure and a count carried out by the civil protection force, forensics team and Mopti's public prosecutor confirmed the toll to be 35, the confusion being partly due to around 100 women being able to escape the village, according to a released government statement. [1]
Six suspects were arrested, including 2 arrested by MINUSMA, following routine checks. [10]
One week after the attack, 41 people were killed in two more Dogon villages. [11]
Mopti is the fifth administrative region of Mali, covering 79,017 km2. Its capital is the city of Mopti. During the 2012 Northern Mali conflict, the frontier between Southern Mali which is controlled by the central government and the rebel-held North ran through Mopti Region.
Yoro is a village and commune and seat of the Cercle of Koro in the Mopti Region of Mali. In 1998 the commune had a population of 10,535. The village and Gangafani were attacked by suspected Fulani gunmen, who killed 41 people according to a MINUSMA count.
Fulani herdsmen or Fulani pastoralists are nomadic or semi-nomadic Fulani people whose primary occupation is raising livestock. The Fulani herdsmen are largely located in the Sahel and semi-arid parts of West Africa, but due to relatively recent changes in climate patterns, many herdsmen have moved further south into the savannah and tropical forest belt of West Africa. The herdsmen are found in countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, and Cameroon. In Senegal, they inhabit northeastern Ferlo and the southeastern part of the country. In some of these countries the Fula constitute a minority group. They inhabit Northern Nigeria and some parts of the country.
The 2016 Nampala attack was an armed assault against a Malian Army base in the Niono Cercle subdivision of the Ségou Region of Mali on 19 July 2016, that left at least 17 government soldiers dead and 35 others injured. The Katiba Macina, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the ethnic Fula militant group National Alliance for the Protection of Fulani Identity and the Restoration of Justice (ANSIPRJ) claimed joint responsibility.
Amadou Koufa, nom de guerre of Amadou Diallo, also spelled Hamadoun Kouffa or Amadou Kouffa is a Malian Fulani jihadist and preacher who founded Katiba Macina, later part of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.
On March 23, 2019, several attacks by gunmen killed a reported 160 Fulani herders in central Mali. The violence came in the aftermath of the Malian government cracking down on Islamic terror cells in the country. Two villages, Ogossagou and Welingara, were particularly affected.
Events in the year 2021 in Mali.
An Islamist insurgency has been ongoing in the Sahel region of West Africa since the 2011 Arab Spring. In particular, the intensive conflict in the three countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has been referred to as the Sahel War.
On 18 and 19 June 2022, 132 civilians were killed by Islamist insurgents in Bankass Cercle, Mopti Region, Mali.
Events in the year 2022 in Mali.
On June 17, 2019, ethnic Fulani militiamen attacked Dogon civilians in the villages of Gangafani and Yoro, in Koro Cercle, Mali, killing 41 people.
The Koulogon massacre took place on January 1, 2019, in a Fulani village near the town of Koulogon Habbé, Bankass Cercle, Mali.
On April 21, 2019, Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin attacked a Malian military base at Guiré, Mali, as revenge for the Ogossagou massacre.
On April 26 and 27, 2018, militants from the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara attacked two refugee camps near Andéramboukane, Ménaka, Mali, killing forty-seven people, mostly Tuareg civilians.
On August 7, 2015, jihadists from Al-Mourabitoun and Katiba Macina attacked the Byblos Hotel in Sévaré, Mali. The attack was one of the largest attacks against civilians in Mopti Region during the Mali War, and led to the deaths of thirteen people, including five civilians.
On February 6, 2014, between thirty-one and thirty-five Imghad Tuareg civilians were massacred by Fulani militants that may have been connected to the jihadist outfit Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA) in and around Tamkoutat, Ménaka Region, Mali.
On July 1, 2020, Fulani militants attacked four Dogon villages in Mali's Bankass Cercle, killing at least thirty-three people.
On February 23, 2023, unknown jihadists attacked the village of Kani Bonzon in Bankass Cercle, Mopti Region, Mali, killing at least twenty people.