The Malian minister for interior and security has said that the militants known as the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) was responsible for the killing of 31 ethnic Tuareg in the town of Tamkoutat, near the city of Gao in northern Mali.

The attack which took place in the town of Tamkoutat is located some 80 kilometers north of the city of Gao, was initially blamed on the Peul ethnic group. An unnamed local lawmaker initially told reporters that the attack was carried out in retaliation against the kidnapping of one Peul member in the community.

Tuareg traders were said to be returning from their daily market activities when their vehicles were attacked on late Friday.

Tuareg and Peul communities accuse each other of carrying out hold-ups in the country’s northern region. The two groups often fight over a shortage of proper grazing land for cattle.

The Peul live in countries in central and western Africa, while Tuaregs are mostly nomadic pastoralists who live in northern Mali and in the Sahara Desert.

But Interior and Security minister, general SadaSamaka who visited the site of the attack accompanied by Malian army officers said on national television that the Jihadist group, Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA) was behind the killings.

He said intelligence sources indicates that the killings confirmed the move by the militants jihadist group moving away from suicide attacks on military installations towards targeting the local civilian population in the north of the country.

“A dozen armed individuals cold-bloodedly slaughtered around 30 merchants on board two vehicles, one of which was torched and the other taken away by the bandits, the travelers aboard the two vehicles fell into an ambush laid by the terrorists of the MUJWA who opened fire on them’’, he said.

A French-led offensive in January last year drove out militants who had seized control of northern Mali as a result of a coup d’état staged by captain Amadou Sanogo to depose the then President, Amadou Toumani Toure.

The African Union in collaboration with the United Nations has provided more than some 12,000 peacekeeping mission in Mali but some militants such as the Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa has been able to stage back some guerilla warfare tactics.

France is winding down its troops’ presence in the country but has said it will keep more than 1,000 soldiers to provide technical assistance to the African Union led United Nations peacekeeping force.

Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa News

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