Attacks, ethnic massacres leave ghost villages in central Mali

MOPTI: After years of ethnic massacres and unrelenting jihadist attacks, central Mali has been left a harrowed area of deserted villages and displaced people. An insurgency erupted in the north of the vast west African state in 2012, claiming thousands of military and civilian lives since. But the violence has since swept into the centre of the country – as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger – inflaming ethnic tensions along the way. Central Mali is now prey to tit-for-tat killings and routine jihadist attacks. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Mamadou Lamine Diop, who works in central Mali for the United Nations’ refugee arm, said the situation...