BAMAKO, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Forty-eight civilians were killed in an attack in northeastern Mali on Sunday, said a community statement.
Armed members belonging to the Islamic State group arrived on motorcycles and targeted civilians in Tagadayat, in the Menaka region, the Idaksahak community's executive bureau said in a statement posted on Facebook on Monday. Several others were injured.
The violence forced many families, including women, children and older people, to abandon their homes and belongings and seek refuge in the town of Menaka, the statement said.
The Idaksahak are a community living mainly in northern Mali's Menaka, Gao and Kidal regions.
Since 2012, Mali has faced a prolonged security crisis marked by insurgencies, terrorist attacks, and intercommunal violence, which have caused thousands of deaths and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. ■
