Fifty killed in Mali hunter-farmer conflict

Traditional Dogon hunters killed at least 50 people in an attack on a Fulani community village in central Mali on Saturday, security, military and local officials said.

"At least 50 Fulani civilians have been killed Saturday in the village of Ogossagou by traditional hunters," a security source told AFP.

"They were killed with guns, machetes," he added.

Cheick Harouna Sankare, mayor of neighbouring Ouenkoro, confirmed the toll.

"There are for the moment about fifty dead in the village.

"It is a massacre of Fulani civilians by traditional Dogon hunters".

The toll was in danger of rising because they had no news of other civilians and the army was not yet on site to help them, he added.

A Malian military source also reported the attack.

The attack happened at Bankass, near the border with Burkina Faso, where there has been frequent inter-communal violence.

Two witnesses questioned separately by AFP said traditional hunters had burned down nearly all the huts in the village.

A statement .