By Aurore Bonny

DOUALA, Cameroon (AA): At least 17 people were killed and several others were injured in two simultaneous attacks in the Gao region of northern Mali, a local mayor said Wednesday.

The villages of Gaena and Boya were the targets of the attacks late Tuesday perpetrated by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), a terrorist group affiliated with Daesh/ISIS.

The information was provided by Hamido Mohamed Bello, the first deputy mayor of Gabero, the commune where the victims’ villages are located.

Armed men belonging to the ISGS attacked Boya with random gunfire, killing 14 people “around sunset,” said Bello.

The second attack, in Gaena, left three people dead and several wounded and up to six people were also abducted, he added.

Bello said the local population began to flee the villages towards larger, more secure towns as they were threatened with reprisals by the assailants.

The tragedy is said to be linked to a clash between the ISGS and the al-Qaeda affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), one of whose wounded traveled to Boya, where he succumbed to his injuries, he added .

[Map of Mali from CIA Factbook/Public Domain]