Mali struggles to disarm ethnic militia

Shortly after rolling into the central Malian town of Koro to detain a leader of an ethnic militia suspected of massacring about 160 villagers, a pickup truck of army soldiers was swarmed by hostile residents.

Video provided by a senior member of the Dan Na Ambassagou militia appears to show the troops beating a retreat amid a hail of rocks and angry chants.

The episode last weekend, which was confirmed by a local mayor, was an embarrassing blow to the State's authority in central Mali, where Islamist insurgents have been capitalising on spiralling communal conflicts to recruit new members and extend their reach.

The government and army spokespeople did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the incident in Koro. Mali's Prime Minister and his entire government resigned on Thursday after legislators discussed bringing a motion of no confidence because of the massacre and a failure to disarm militias or beat back militants.

Western governments, including former colonial power France and the United States, are alarmed by the rise of jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in West Africa's lawless Sahel region.

They have deployed thousands of elite troops there to make sure it does not become a new Islamist haven following the losses inflicted on the groups in the Middle East.

Governments across the Sahel have also tacitly outsourced part of the fight against jihadists to local self-defence groups, many of them intent chiefly on settling ethnic scores.

However, the killings of the villagers on March 23, Mali's worst ethnic bloodletting in living memory, show what can go wrong when governments turn a blind eye to vigilante groups in order to repel jihadists.

Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had ordered the Dan Na Ambassagou - an anti-jihadi, ethnic Dogon group - disbanded after suspected members stormed the two villages, Ogossagou and Welingara, inhabited mainly by Fulani herders.

Most of the deaths occurred in Ogossagou, where gunmen left the charred bodies of women and children smouldering in their homes.

The United Nations has sent rights experts to investigate the killings. The International Criminal Court said the crimes could fall under its jurisdiction.

Shortly after rolling into the central Malian town of Koro to detain a leader of an ethnic militia suspected of massacring about 160 villagers, a pickup truck of army soldiers was swarmed by hostile residents.