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NEARLY 100 PEOPLE have been killed in an overnight attack on a village in central Mali, in the latest violence to strike the region.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the massacre, targeting a village inhabited by the Dogon community, bore the hallmarks of tit-for-tat ethnic attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives.
The government, giving a provisional toll, said 95 people had been killed, 19 were missing, numerous farm animals had been slaughtered and homes had been torched.
“Armed men, suspected to be terrorists, launched a murderous attack on this peaceful village,” it said in a statement.
A Malian security source at the site of the massacre said “a Dogon village has been virtually wiped out”.
The attack comes less than three months after nearly 160 members of the Fulani ethnic group were slaughtered by a group identified as Dogon.
The deadly raid took place on 23 March in the village of Ogassogou, home to the Fulani herding community, near the town of Mopti in central Mali.
The United Nations launched an investigation into the attack at the time.
Irish Defence Forces
There are currently 20 Irish Defence Forces personnel deployed to the EU Training Mission (EUTM) in Mali. Ireland has participated in the mission since it was launched in 2013.
The mission includes 9 Irish personnel who occupy staff appointments in the mission headquarters in Bamako and 11 personnel who are based in the Koulikoro training centre.
Koulikoro is located around 650 kilometres from where the incident in March took place.
In March, Luke Ming Flanagan MEP called on the government to bring home the Irish personnel following the massacre.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie in March, the Department of Defence said Minister of State Paul Kehoe is “very concerned at the horrific reports” of that massacre.
The Department said the “massacre and senseless loss of innocent lives underlines the need for an international presence and highlights the important function of the UN mandated EU Training mission”.
“Continued participation in this mission supports Ireland’s ongoing obligations to international peace and security and the commitment to maintaining the Defence Forces capabilities in international operations”, the Department said.
On Sunday, TheJournal.ie reported that Minister of State Paul Kehoe will this week bring a proposal to Cabinet to deploy the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) with the UN peacekeeping force in Mali.
If approved this would be the first deployment of the ARW overseas in their special forces role since their deployment to Chad in 2008.
The UN mission MINUSMA (Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali) was established in April 2013 after an upsurge in violence.
If Cabinet gives the proposal the go-ahead, it will have to proceed to the Dáil for approval.
The Department of Defence has been contacted for a statement following the latest massacre.
With reporting by Michelle Hennessy and - © AFP 2019
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Is the RCC making any contribution to this compensation fund? They were the employer and they received money both from the State and from the businesses which they carried work out for. Surely, there must be some liability there. Perhaps, a transfer of RCC school property to the State, if they are stuck for ready cash?
The RCC have not paid one single euro into the fund nor have any of the Orders of Nuns.
Is it me or does the compensation sound small. They worked for years as slave labour in these laundries.
Whether intending to or not you’ve made their claim only about money.
@Ross
I’ve seen a few of these ladies on TV and they have stated that they are looking for an official apology.
Read my comment fully. It was directed at the first comment who said that the money was too low.
Maybe that’s the your mind works so you picked it up like that. If they looked for or didn’t that doesn’t change the fact they should be fairly compensated.
Why aren’t the RCC paying the full amount?? Typical, the Irish government bend over and take it up the ar se every time from this corrupt and perverted cult!! Time to separate church and state for once and for all!!
It’s a good start, but i think they want vindication as well.
It seems small change-maybe there waiting for these people to disappear off the planet for good,to reduce that €12 million compo figure!…
The maths on that don’t add up and there is nothing wrong with my calculator.If you take 357 and even assume they were at top of scale. They got lump sum of 65,000 multiply that by 357 and you get 23,205,000 that’s not 12.8 million
Also when she states CERTAIN MEDICAL SCHEMES I would like to know exactly what schemes she is referring to.
have your say