A deputy mayor was shot dead at his home in Kendié (a commune in Mali's central Bandiagara region) in the early hours of 31 May, amid escalating conflict between the jihadist group JNIM (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, linked to al-Qaeda) and the traditional Dozo hunters of Dan Na Ambassagou, who serve as a local self-defence force. The victim had reportedly advocated for local agreements with the jihadists; local sources accuse the Dozo militia of the killing, which the group denies. The violence comes after JNIM launched a series of attacks in May that killed at least 70 people, while the UN refugee agency UNHCR warns that the town of Koro is now receiving a fresh wave of exhausted refugees fleeing jihadist violence in neighbouring Burkina Faso, adding to tens of thousands already sheltering there in overstretched conditions.