Reuters
France announced the liquidation of dozens of terrorists with an air strike in central Mali, but villagers and a local community said that about 20 people were killed in a helicopter attack during a wedding party.
Rumors have spread on social media since last Sunday about the events in Ponte, in the Mopti region in the center of the country, and villagers there told France Press that an unknown helicopter had attacked a wedding.
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The French Ministry of Defense stated that fighter jets targeted and killed dozens of terrorists in central Mali after tracking their group for several days.
A military spokesman told France Press that “the reports on the wedding do not match the observations collected,” and it is difficult to confirm similar reports in a remote area where a large number of jihadists are believed to be active.
And on Sunday, an association supporting the Fulani ethnicity in Mali said that “an air strike killed at least 20 civilians during a wedding party.”
Ponte is about 600 km from the financial capital, Bamako.
The region is witnessing an extremist rebellion that began in northern Mali in 2012 and then extended to include neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Source: AFP
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