MORE than 130 people were killed in an attack on a Fulani village in central Mali on Saturday, the United Nations said, as a delegation visited the country.

Survivors accused traditional Dogon hunters of carrying out the deadly raid in Ogossagou, according to Boubacar Kane, the governor of Bankass district that covers the village. A security source said the victims were shot or hacked to death with machetes.

“The Secretary-General is shocked and outraged by reports that at least 134 civilians, including women and children, have been killed,” Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said in a statement, adding he called on Malian authorities “to swiftly investigate it and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

The attack was launched at dawn Saturday in the village near the border with Burkina Faso, said several sources.

The district has been the scene of frequent inter-communal violence.

The massacre took place as a delegation from the United Nations Security Council visited the Sahel region to assess the jihadist threat there.

(SD-Agencies)