Three civilians were killed by gunfire the day before yesterday, Tuesday and yesterday Wednesday in the northern city of Timbuktu, by unknown gunmen, according to local authorities and eyewitnesses.
On Tuesday night, two young residents were “killed” around 19:00 by “two armed people moving by car”, the authorities announced yesterday.
The two victims, a barber and his client, were, according to several sources who spoke to Agence France-Presse, members of the Songhai tribe.
Tensions, sometimes deadly, are frequent in this city between members of the Songhai and Babara tribes and Tuareg and Arab nomads.
Three people were killed in the city in late November. The most recent large-scale episodes in Timbuktu had broken out in 2019.
These are “targeted killings” and “retaliation for differences between members of different communities,” an official explained on condition of anonymity.
Several dozen people demonstrated in the city yesterday morning, a correspondent of the French Agency found out. The protesters, mostly young, “wanted to retaliate” for the killings, the Mali military said in a statement.
The army vehicle, which was developed to “control the situation”, was forced to flee as gunmen opened fire, the army said.
Hundreds of people then gathered in the city center for the funeral of the two young men who were killed on Tuesday.
“After the burial, some people opened fire on two people, one of whom was a little boy,” said an eyewitness. One of the two men was killed, according to authorities in Timbuktu.
Mali has been facing a latent and volatile conflict since 2012, initially located in the north, where separatist groups have emerged, followed by jihadist organizations. The violence has since spread to much of the territory.
Follow Skai.gr on Google News
and be the first to know all the news
.
