Mali: 12 dead in hotel siege, four hostages rescued

At least four people, including two soldiers, were killed in an attack on a military base and a hotel frequented by Westerners in Mali, security sources told Anadolu Agency.

The SA embassy in Mali has confirmed that a 38-year-old man from Pretoria was shot dead by militants in a hostage situation at a Mali hotel, said Nelson Kgwete, spokesperson of the Department of global Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). A foreign ministry spokesman said he was working for an aviation company hired by MINUSMA.

Military spokesman Colonel Souleymane Maiga said the early suspicion was that the Massina Liberation Front, whose members are mainly drawn from central Mali’s ethnic Peul community, had carried out the attack.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack, which comes as Mali is seeking to implement a June peace deal despite continuing unrest from militant groups and spreading jihadist attacks since the beginning of the year.

“MINUSMA continues to be established and specifically to gratifying its duties in the carrying out from the demand in assist of Mali, its federal along with its certain people”, the United Nations dream said in a statement of facts Saturday. France also denounced “in the strongest possible terms” the siege and reiterated its support for the Malian security forces and MINUSMA “in the fight against terrorism”.

Located a few kilometres from the regional capital Mopti, Sevare is a key staging post on the road to Mali’s desert north which fell to Islamic extremists in 2012.

“Government sends its deepest condolences to the family of the SA national who lost his life in the attack in Mali”.

Gunmen had burst into the hotel at around 7.00am (0700 GMT) on Friday, according to the government.

On Friday, Malian forces had used heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, in a failed attempt to dislodge the gunmen.

The siege began after the gunmen retreated from an attempted attack on a military site about 20 yards away from the hotel.

Sevare, a garrison town about 600 kilometers (375 miles) northeast of the capital, Bamako, is at the heart of Mali’s tourism industry and up until now had not been targeted in the attacks more common in the northern towns of Gao and Timbuktu.

Defense officials did not give the nationalities of the hostages freed in the early Saturday operation, which they said was backed by French soldiers.

Sources said three South Africans, a Frenchman and a Ukrainian had been registered at the hotel at the time of the attack. The body of an unidentified man was seen lying outside the building near a burnt-out van, pictures from the scene showed on Saturday.