4 hostages freed from Mali hotel, 13 people dead

Four hostages have been freed from a hotel in central Mali after a standoff with Islamic extremists that left 13 people dead.

A Ukrainian hostage who managed to escape from the “four or five terrorists” still barricaded inside the hotel Friday evening, told soldiers he had been with three South Africans and a Russian when the shooting began.

A source said that “a number of hostages” had been freed from the hotel, including five foreigners.

Whitehouse said the attack was likely intended “to signal all Malians everywhere that neither their government nor the United Nations can keep them safe”, but he noted the rapid response by Mali’s forces.

MINUSMA said that “a member of the worldwide personnel” was believed to be among those killed.

Local media identified the man as Roelof Janse van Rensburg. A foreign ministry spokesperson said he was working for an aviation company hired by MINUSMA.

“Attackers have taken some foreigners hostage in one of the hotels in the area”. Later, the South African and Ukrainian Foreign Ministries confirmed the reports.

The attack comes as Islamist extremist groups step up attacks in Mali, spreading violence to central parts of the country from the north where their efforts to expand territory have previously been concentrated.

Four additional bodies were discovered inside the Hotel Byblos, popular with tourists and UN staff, in the town of Sevare after the siege, bringing the death toll to 12.

The US issued a statement that “strongly condemns” the attack, branding it “deplorable”.

A heavy firefight broke out when the Malian army tried to force the militants out of the hotel claiming the lives of five soldiers and three gunmen, including one allegedly wearing an explosive belt.

Remains of the team have staged numerous assaults on forces and UN peacekeepers, but Friday’s attack on the resort considered to be favored by US pilots designated a significant escalation. An investigation is underway to establish how they died, it said. The army was able to force the group to retreat, leaving the gunmen no choice but to seek refuge in the hotel. The body of an unidentified man was seen lying outside the building near a burnt-out van, pictures from the scene showed on Saturday.

A 2013 French-led military operation succeeded in driving Islamist fighters out of cities and towns seized a year earlier in the west African nation’s desert north. MINUSMA was then deployed to maintain precarious stability.