Forty people, including nine soldiers, have been killed in a spate of attacks in central Mali, authorities said Friday, with most of the deaths caused by inter-ethnic violence in the deeply troubled region.

Thirty-one people were killed in an attack overnight in Ogossagou, a village mainly inhabited by Fulani people where 160 died last March in a massacre blamed on Dogon militiamen, the government said, raising the death toll.

About 30 gunmen carried out the new attack, village chief Aly Ousmane Barry told AFP.

"Huts and crops were set alight, livestock was burned or taken away," he added, vowing that the government would find the perpetrators.

A local government official, who requested anonymity, had earlier said that 28 people were missing.

He blamed the attack on a Dogon hunters' group -- an assertion that could be not be verified independently.

The official and village chief Aly Ousmane Barry both said the attackers moved in several hours after government troops had pulled out of the area.

Eight soldiers killed in ambush

Later Friday eight Mali soldiers were killed and four others injured in an ambush in the central Gao region, the army said.

The Malian force also suffered "material damage," the military said on social media sites, without indicating who had carried out the attack in the village of Bentia.

Also on Friday a soldier was killed in an attack on a military camp in Mondoro, also in central Mali, security officials said.

The camp had already been hit before -- as part of a joint raid by militants that also targeted the military camp of Boulkessy near the border with Burkina Faso, killing at least 25 soldiers.

Central Mali became gripped by ethnic violence after a jihadist revolt broke out in the north of the country in 2012.

The insurgency has claimed thousands of lives and spread to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Tit-for-tat attacks in central Mali flared after Fulani people, also called Peul, became associated with jihadists.

Led by a firebrand Islamic preacher Amadou Koufa, a militia called the Katiba Macina recruited members from among the Fulani and has been accused of ethnically-motivated attacks.

Other ethnic groups such as the Bambara or the Dogon began to form self-defence groups that have been accused of reprisal massacres.

In addition to the latest attack at Ogossagou, 14 Fulani were killed in central Mali in January.

Around 75 Dogons were killed in the villages of Sobane Da, Gangafani and Yoro in June last year, in an attack blamed on Fulani militants.

'Epicentre' of violence

Human Rights Watch this month pointed to the ethnic patchwork of central Mali as the country's "epicentre" of violence.

It said over 450 civilians had been killed in the region in 2019, "the deadliest year for civilians" since the jihadist insurgency began.

Reflecting the chronic instability, Malian soldiers are themselves frequently targeted.

On January 26, Al-Qaeda-linked militants attacked a military camp in Sokolo, central Mali, killing 20 gendarmes and wounding five more.

The violence in central Mali coincides with renewed hopes that the fragile government can reassert control over the largely lawless north.

Troops returned on Thursday to Kidal, a northern town that had been a bastion of Tuareg rebels, after a six-year absence.

Regular forces returned to the town accompanied by former rebels who have been integrated into the army under a regional peace agreement.

The deal, reached in Algiers in 2015, is considered one of the few avenues Mali has for escaping the cycle of violence.

Arvind Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi Chief Minister on Sunday (16 Feb 2020).

Nearly 50 sanitation workers, auto-rickshaw, bus and metro train drivers and school peons will share the dais with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal when he takes oath as Delhi Chief Minister for the third time on Sunday. 

"50 people representing different sections will be sharing the stage with Arvind Kejriwal. These people represent those who are the real makers of Delhi's destiny. It includes peons in schools, doctors of Mohalla clinics, autorickshaw, bus and ambulance drivers, sanitation workers, marshals of buses, teachers, headmasters, sanitation workers and others," AAP leader Manish Sisodia said at a press conference on Saturday. 

"We have also invited students who have won medals in Olympiads. Students who have won medals in Olympiad held at Moscow are also invited. Families of firefighters who have lost their lives on the line of duty and police personnel are also invited," he added.

AAP galloped to a landslide victory by winning 62 of the 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly elections in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015's tally of three seats. The Congress, which drew a blank in the previous elections, failed to open its account yet again.

The government has announced that it will offer FASTags free of charge for 15 days between February 15 and February 29. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to waive off the cost of FASTag of Rs 100 for the 15-day period.

The ministry said that vehicle owners can visit any authorised physical point-of-sale locations with a valid Registration Certificate (RC) of the vehicle to avail FASTag free of cost. This move comes as the government is pushing for an increase in the digital collection of FASTags.

The NHAI FASTags can be purchased from all NH fee plazas, RTOs, Common Service Centres, transport hubs, petrol pumps. One can also download the My FASTag App or call the helpline number, 1033.

The ministry stated that the applicable security deposit and minimum balance for FASTag wallet will remain unchanged. The NHAI had also earlier announced free FASTags from November 22 to December 15 last year to encourage people to adopt FASTag.

What is FASTag?

FASTag is a tag that allows automatic deduction of toll charges at NHAI toll plazas. It uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) for the deduction of toll fee. The tag is linked with a prepaid or savings/ current account.

Once the tag is stuck on the vehicle's windscreen, it enables drivers to drive through toll plazas without having to stop to pay.

FASTags can be bought online as well, including from Amazon and Paytm. One-time charge of Rs 100 must be paid by the user for account activation. A convenience fee is also charged for online recharges.

Two terrorists and a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan were killed in a gun battle in Shalteng in Parampora area outside Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, the police said.

The encounter began after three bike-borne terrorists opened fire on the CRPF personnel who were posted at a mobile checking unit in the area, officials said.

One CRPF jawan was killed after being injured in the attack. He has been identified as Rajeev Ranjan, a CRPF spokesperson said.

The security forces retaliated, killing two terrorists, he said, adding that the third one was captured in an injured condition when he was trying to flee from the spot.

The spokesperson said there were intelligence inputs that terrorists would try to carry out strikes at security installations in Kashmir ahead of the 7th death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The security personnel had been asked to remain on high alert from February 8-14, February 9 being the day Guru was hanged in 2013, February 11 when Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) founder Maqbool Bhat was hanged in 1984, and February 14 being the anniversary of the Pulwama attack carried out by security forces last year, the spokesperson said.

Pakistan will do its best to buy more palm oil from Malaysia after top buyer India put curbs on imports last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday, uring a visit to the Southeast Asian nation.

Last year Pakistan bought 1.1 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia, the world's second biggest producer and exporter of the edible oil.