Safadi condemns Mali massacre, hails Daesh defeat

AMMAN — Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Sunday condemned the terrorist attack that struck Mali and left dozens of people dead.

In a Tweet on Sunday, Safadi said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims & their families and we offer our deepest condolences to our brethren. We stand united against terrorism & its ideology of hate.” 

More than 130 people were killed in an attack on a Fulani village in central Mali on Saturday, the United Nations said, as a delegation visited the country.

Survivors accused traditional Dogon hunters of carrying out the deadly raid in Ogossagou, according to Boubacar Kane, the governor of Bankass district which the village is a part of. A security source told AFP that the victims were shot or hacked to death with machetes.

Meanwhile, Safadi said that the defeat of Daesh does not mean a complete end of terrorism, saying that terrorism is also an ideological threat that requires intensified international efforts to be fully eradicated. 

In a ministry statement, Safadi was quoted as saying that Jordan will always be at the front of international efforts to fighting tourism.

Fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced on Saturday the demise of the extremist group’s self-declared “caliphate” from its very last bastion in eastern Syria, following a six-month operation.

Daesh declared a “caliphate” in June 2014 after seizing a vast swathe of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.