At least 25 people have been killed and scores injured in the tribal clashes that erupted along the Burkina Faso-Mali border earlier this week, media reports citing unnamed local officials said late on Thursday.
Violence broke out in the Malian village of Sari on Tuesday between the local Dogon tribe and members Burkina Faso's Puel ethnic group over grazing and land rights. Most of the victims were said to be Peuls.
Mali's previous administration, led by ousted President Amadou Toumani Toure-- an ethnic Puel himself, had allowed Peul headers to take their cattle though Dogon territory using special paths. Peuls are traditionally herders, while the Dogons are a farming community.
The latest tribal clashes were reportedly triggered after Puel herders took their live stocks through Dogon farming areas. Incidentally, the Dogons have complained on several occasions in the past that Puel livestock had damaged their crops.
Tensions between the two rival tribes have been high ever since Toure was ousted by a coup on March 22. The coup was triggered by dissatisfaction among a large section of the military, over the government's failure to address their demands for better supplies and arms to tackle the Tuareg uprising in the North.
Although the coup leaders later agreed to return power to a civilian government under an agreement reached with the West African regional grouping ECOWAS in exchange for lifting sanctions against the military junta, they are yet to do so despite mounting international pressure.
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