A/HRC/43/76 attacks continue to be reported on an almost daily basis. The Independent Expert further notes that armed terrorist groups are taking advantage of the absence of the State from those areas to exploit and deepen the rifts between communities. He has learned that, on 9 June 2019, between 5 p.m. and midnight, a group of 30 to 40 individuals armed with AK-type automatic assault rifles attacked the village of Sobane Da in Mopti region. They killed at least 35 members of the Dogon community, including 22 children under the age of 12, and caused the destruction by fire of 40 per cent of the buildings in the village. Of the 35 victims found at the scene, 32 had been burned alive or asphyxiated in dwellings and 3 men had been shot dead. The nine wounded, including at least one woman and four boys between the ages of 2 and 11, were evacuated to the hospital in Sévaré. An investigation was opened by the specialized judicial unit in Bamako. It was important that the investigation should lead to the prosecution of the perpetrators. As the Independent Expert has already noted, the involvement of so-called armed self-defence groups with a strong community-related component or extremist armed groups had reportedly exacerbated the situation, as the following two examples illustrate. On 23 September 2019, alleged members of Fulani armed self-defence groups riding on motorcycles fired on two civilian farmers from the Dogon community while they were guarding their fields near the village of Koi-Maoudé in Mopti region, killing one and injuring the other. According to information received by the Independent Expert, the one who died was a university student who was on holiday in his village. The Independent Expert learned that, during the night of 13 November 2019, in the week prior to his arrival in Mali, at least 27 people had been killed during an attack by armed men on the village of Peh, near the border with Burkina Faso, in Mopti region. During the attack, these men also set fire to grain stores. The Independent Expert learned that the attackers, dressed as traditional hunters, came from the neighbouring village of Tongo in Burkina Faso. When the Malian Armed Forces intervened, the attackers withdrew and abandoned the stolen cattle. 43. The Independent Expert notes with concern that there is an entrenched cycle of violence and retaliation in the affected area in the centre of the country. For example, the Independent Expert learned that, during the night of 17 to 18 June 2019, in the villages of Yoro and Gangafani, 38 people belonging to the Dogon and Telem communities were attacked and killed by armed men from the Fulani community. On 20 June 2019, at approximately 10 a.m., a group of armed traditional hunters killed 10 members of the Fulani community, including 2 women and 2 boys, and wounded 3 other civilians in an attack on the village of Bogolo, in Mopti region. The Independent Expert learned that the attackers also set fire to 67 residences and killed many animals. In Mopti region, on 27 October 2019, a group of armed persons who claimed to belong to a Fulani self-defence group killed five men and wounded two others as they left the weekly market in Koro town; the following day, six civilians leaving the weekly market in Madougou were reportedly killed by armed men from the Fulani community. In Douentza district, on the morning of 24 April 2019, armed men from the Fulani community based in the village of Mboulde had killed two men from the Dogon community in the neighbouring village of Banai. In retaliation, armed members of the Dogon community from the villages of Banai, Niangassadiou, Toikan and Douna attacked the village of Banai on 25 April 2019, provoking an armed confrontation with armed members of the Fulani community. The attackers reportedly set several houses on fire, killing two elderly blind members of the Fulani community, an 85-year-old man and a 75-year-old woman, who were unable to escape. Members of the National Guard based in Mondoro reportedly patrolled the area, forcing members of the Fulani community, including armed villagers, to retreat into the surrounding bush. The Independent Expert learned that the National Guards had escorted the Dogon men to their villages. The local authorities had opened an investigation into the matter. 44. The Independent Expert learned of the de facto siege imposed by traditional hunters on the village of Birga-Peul, in Mopti region, which is inhabited by members of the Fulani community. This state of siege, referred to as an “embargo” by the local population, was a result of the absence of security forces to protect the civilian population, who were stranded and unable to access basic social services. The siege, which had lasted for several weeks, had contributed to food insecurity and the spread of disease, which had killed three women and a child in one week in June 2019. MINUSMA had issued an alert on 28 June 2019 10 GE.20-00529