The claims come a day after a Dogon-linked armed group pulled out of a month-old ceasefire with the Fulani, saying it needed to protect its own.

Since the 2015 emergence of a jihadist movement led by Fulani preacher Amadou Koufa in central Mali, disputes have regularly turned violent between the nomadic herders and Dogon farmers.

The violence is often sparked by accusations of Fulani grazing cattle on Dogon land, and disputes over access to land and water.

"In my town of Ouenkoro, yesterday (Wednesday), nine Fulani civilians were killed by Dogon hunters who said they had broken the ceasefire," said Cheick Harouna Sankare, the mayor of the town near the border with Burkina Faso to the south.

"The day before yesterday, another three Fulani civilians were killed," he told AFP.

Another local representative, who did not wish to be named, confirmed the deaths of nine civilians in Ouenkoro.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the Dogon-linked group Dan Nan Ambassagou accused "Fulani terrorists" of "slaughtering our unarmed Dogon relatives."

"It's over, we are resuming our protection of the population," Moussa Togoun told AFP, announcing the ceasefire had been broken several days earlier.

A bit further north, attacks attributed to Dogon hunters have targeted the Fulani-majority town of Djabel in recent days, with the village chief killed at a fair on Tuesday, a town official said.