Over 51 people were killed on Sunday as Islamist militants raided three villages in central Mali near the border with Niger.
Ouatagouna, Karou and Deouteguef towns were simultaneously attacked around 6 p.m., said the Asongo district administrator.
He made this known in a message to the governor of Gao region,
The note added that houses were ransacked and burned to the ground and herds of livestock carried away.
“Provisional toll is 51 killed, several others injured,” it said.
Local sources told Reuters that militants stationed themselves at the towns’ entrances and fired indiscriminately upon civilians.
The administrator said Malian troops where sweeping the area.
He requested military escort to “help with the funerals, reassure the populations and offer condolences to the bereaved families.”
Mali’s army spokesman Colonel Souleymane Dembele confirmed the attacks but gave no further details.
No group has yet taken responsibility for the attacks.
Malian troops, French and European forces, and United Nations peacekeepers have been battling insurgents linked to the Islamic State and al Qaeda in the area.
