MALI has opened investigations amid claims its armed forces killed dozens of civilians on Friday during an attack on a village in the volatile Mopti region of the country.

At last 30 people were killed and a Fulani village burnt to the ground, according to local officials, though it was not clear who was behind the attack.

Aly Barry from the Fulani association Tabital Pulaaku confirmed in a statement that the group has called for an independent investigation into the killings led by the United Nations, as the security situation in the west African nation continues to deteriorate.

“If nothing is done, the infernal spiral of violence will continue,” he said on Saturday.

An official from Binedama village, who did not wish to be named, confirmed that its chief was among the dead and claimed that “men dressed in Malian army fatigues” had carried out the raid.

Malian Defence Minister Ibrahim Dahirou Dembele said: “At this stage I can neither confirm nor deny anything.”

No group had claimed responsibility for the attack at the time the Star went to print.

Anger is growing with the government’s inability to deal effectively with a rise in jihadist attacks that are plaguing the arid Sahel region, including neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Former prime minister Soumaila Cisse, a leading opposition figure, was kidnapped in central Mali in March and has been missing ever since. Security services believe he is being held by Islamists.

On Friday French forces claimed to have killed the regional al-Qaida leader Abdelmalek Droukdel during operations with local militia.

Around 200,000 are internally displaced in Mali due to the violence but there is rising discontent over allegations of abuses committed by the country’s armed forces.

Thousands took to the streets of the Malian capital Bamako to demand that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita resign amid a growing economic crisis.

As many as 4.3 million of Mali’s 18.4m population rely on humanitarian aid, an increase of 1.1m from last year.

But the funds received by humanitarian organisations amounted to just 5 per cent of the $3 billion (£2.3bn) spent by the country’s armed forces, UN agencies claim.