National Alliance for the Protection of Peul Identity and Restoration of Justice (ANSIPRJ)
Gunmen killed 17 soldiers and wounded 35 others in an attack on an army camp in central Mali on the morning of 20 July 2016. Several groups claimed responsibility. The soldiers were attacked at their base in the central town of Nampala, in what Mali's Defense Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly described as a "coordinated terrorist attack." At least two groups have claimed responsibility for the attack. The first is the Islamist group Macina Liberation Front which is linked to the jihadist organization Ansar Dine.
The second is a recently-formed group from the ethnic Peul community, calling themselves the National Alliance for the Protection of Peul Identity and Restoration of Justice (ANSIPRJ). "We attacked Nampala this morning to respond to the deadly attacks by the Malian army against our Peul population," Oumar Aldjana, ANSIPRJ's secretary-general told the Associated Press. Peul groups in the region have accused the military of arresting, torturing and killing civilians. He said several trucks and stocks of ammunition were seized and three members of his group were wounded.
However, regional security sources told the AFP that they doubted the veracity of ANSIPRJ's claim, saying that the group was only founded last month and lacked the means to carry out such a raid.
A government statement said it was not yet clear who had carried out the killings. But army spokesman Souleymane Maiga told Reuters that al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had also been involved in the attack. The Malian government said it would find and punish those responsible.
Northern Mali has seen ongoing violence since it fell under the control of Tuareg-led rebels allied with Jihadist groups linked to al Qaeda. But attacks from Islamist, criminal and ethnic elements are now becoming more frequent in the country's center close to its borders with Niger and Burkina Faso.
The Peulh (Fula, Fulani) are spread across western Africa. In Mali, they live predominantly in the great inland delta of the Niger, where their Fulfulde language is the lingua franca, and in the country's east. Some are cattle herders, while others are sedentary farmers.
The Fulani are important people of Africa in the Senegambia region and Sudan. It is designated under the most diverse names: Foulahs, Fellatahs, Fellans, Fellanies, etc. The basic form of the name is Poul, which means in the language of the people, "light brown, red," plural Poulbé or Fulani. They say a Poullo, the Fulani; This is the name by which this people will know himself.
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