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Death Toll From Mali Attacks Climbs to 160, Government Says

Death Toll From Mali Attacks Climbs to 160, Government Says

(Bloomberg) -- The death toll from attacks on villages in central Mali at the weekend rose to 160, making it one of the deadliest assaults since separatists and Islamist insurgents seized swathes of the nation’s north in 2012.

The latest estimate of casualties was announced by government spokesman Amadou Koita in the capital, Bamako. The government says the March 23 raids on the village of Ogossagou and two other ethnic Fulani settlements were carried out by gunmen dressed as Dozo hunters.

The massacres took place as a United Nations Security Council mission visited Mali seeking solutions to violence that killed at least 500 civilians last year, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katarina Hoije in Abidjan at khoije@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Paul Richardson

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