Fulani butcher the Dogon ethnic group in Mali with roughly 100 people killed

Fulani butcher the Dogon ethnic group in Mali with roughly 100 people killed

Boutros Hussein and Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

The Fulani ethnic group is creating enormous tensions in several nations, notably Nigeria and Mali. Indeed, in Nigeria, the Fulani Muslim community is behind countless massacres against Christians. Therefore, the latest massacre of the Dogon people in Mali is following a similar pattern, whereby the repercussions of tit-for-tat killings began on the growing menace of the Fulani in Nigeria and Mali respectively.

In central parts of Mali, various ethnic groups inhabit this area. Alongside this, you have competing versions of Islam from the indigenous influence of Animism to the growing menace of Gulf Sunni Islamism. This notably applies to 2012 and onward because Fulani jihadists entered the fray to a bigger degree.

In the latest bloodletting in Mali the news agency France 24 reports, “Armed assailants set fire to the village and shot villagers as they sought to escape the flames, the mayor of Sangha told FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Bamako, Christelle Pire.”

Hence, just like Christian militancy in the Central African Republic developed based on various massacres by a Muslim militia that emerged rapidly; the changing nature of parts of Mali is equally based on ethnic and Islamists factors. Thereby, after the Fulani began to attack and kill members of the Bambara and Dogon in central Mali, this was followed by a counter response via “self-defense groups.”

Several years ago the Sufi leader of the Tidjania sect, Thiermo Thiam, reported, “We need a stable government, a functioning democracy and an end to illiteracy so that people can actually read the Qu’ran for themselves. Our Islam needs to continue to be an Islam of tolerance or we will all be pushed towards violence.”

Sadly, Islamist forces are a growing menace throughout the region and when this is added to ethnic issues, then the flow of violence is never far away. Enter the recent bloodletting against the Fulani in an earlier massacre this year; that now seems to have set off a tit-for-tat massacre against the Dogon.

The BBC stipulates, “There is a growing view in Mali that the (mostly military) response to this multi-faceted crisis is ineffective and even counter-productive. Despite having a large UN peacekeeping mission and French forces deployed since 2013, insecurity has worsened in some parts of the country.”

Sadly, the Islamist angle emanating from Gulf versions of Islam – along with weak central governments throughout the region – is creating even more tensions. Hence, with the region being wracked by countless ethnic issues, the control over resources, a limited infrastructure, illiteracy, poverty, and other serious issues, then the vacuum is open to various types of militancy.

https://www.france24.com/en/20190610-scores-killed-attack-dogon-village-central-mali-sobane

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-48579475