Fourteen Malian civilians were killed by jihadists earlier this week in the town of Léré, in central Mali, AFP learned Thursday from local, military and survivor sources.

Since 2012, Mali has faced a deep security crisis, fueled in particular by the violence of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), as well as community criminal groups.

Last Monday, "there was an assault by JNIM and they abducted twelve people whom they then killed," a local official, speaking anonymously for security reasons, told AFP on Thursday.

Two shepherds, abducted four days before the assault, were "found dead a few kilometers from the city," added the source, who claims that the jihadists accused these civilians "of being accomplices of the Famas (Malian Armed Forces)."

A man who fled Léré to seek refuge in Mauritania told AFP that the jihadists had given "a 24-hour ultimatum" to leave the city and "those who could not leave were killed".

"Those who refused to leave were murdered or taken hostage," another resident of the city, now a refugee in Mauritania, told AFP.

For the past two weeks, JNIM jihadists have imposed a blockade on this central locality.

"We have received information that 14 male civilians have been executed. Hundreds of people have fled in the last 48 hours," a UN source told AFP.

JNIM accuses the residents of not having "respected the conditions they had set", explains the same source.

A security source based in Timbuktu confirmed to AFP "the execution of at least ten people", as did a soldier who went to Léré "to witness the massacre".

In the rest of the country, JNIM jihadists have been increasing pressure on the Malian junta since September by imposing blockades on several localities as well as on fuel tanker trucks.

This strategy of stifling the economy of this Sahelian country is now being felt even in the capital, Bamako.

Recent mapping of attacks shows that JNIM is seeking to isolate Bamako by increasing operations on the surrounding roads.

The junta, in power since two coups in 2020 and 2021, is struggling to contain jihadist attacks on the ground.