Mali leader sacks generals, disbands vigilantes after massacre

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita sacked and replaced two generals and disbanded an anti-jihadi vigilante group on Sunday, a day after gunmen massacred 134 Fulani herders in the country’s troubled central region.

The ethnic bloodshed took place less than a week after a deadly assault by jihadists on an army post killed at least 23 soldiers, also in Mali’s central region. That attack was claimed by an al Qaeda affiliate.

The army chief of staff General M’Bemba Moussa Keita was removed and replaced by General Abdoulaye Coulibaly, while chief of land forces General Abdrahamane Baby was replaced by Brigadier-General Keba Sangare.

Malians have grown increasingly frustrated by the failure of government forces to protect them from both jihadist onslaughts and ethnic reprisals.

But the massacre of civilians at the villages of Ogossagou and Welingara on Saturday, which left the charred bodies of women and children smouldering in their homes, has shocked a population long inured to gratuitous killing.

(REUTERS)