Death toll from Mali hotel attack rises to 12

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.

Two South Africans, a Russian and a Ukrainian working for the UN were freed earlier today after militants stormed the Hotel Byblos in Sevare yesterday.

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.

A source told AFP that “a number of hostages” had been freed from the hotel, including five foreigners, although their nationalities were not specified.

They killed at least six people, including five government soldiers and an employee with Mali’s MINUSMA UN peacekeeping mission, and held off attempts to dislodge them during the ensuing stand-off.

There was no information on their citizenship.

The BBC’s Alex Duval Smith in Mali said the town, which is about 600km north-east of the capital, Bamako, was a trading hub that serves the historic riverside city of Mopti.

Colonel Kone said: ‘It seems to be over and it has ended well. “But unfortunately we also found three bodies at the site”.

The 38-year-old South African who died in the attack worked for an aviation company that was assisting the United Nations contingent in Mali, Nelson Kgwete, spokesman for South Africa’s foreign ministry, said on Twitter.

A Ukrainian hostage managed to escape from the hotel and said up to five gunmen had led the hostage-taking in Sevare, which lies 620 kilometres south of the capital Bamako. At least one French national was thought to be staying at the hotel, Malian forces said Friday, as Reuters reported. “There is one Russian citizen among the hostages”.

Mali has been fighting Islamist rebels in the north for a number of years.

While French and UN forces pushed the militants out of most of those strongholds in 2013, the government is struggling to regain authority there.

Several Jihadi groups took control over the north of the West African country in 2012 but were later driven out by a French military operation which started in January 2013.

The insurgents have continued to mount sporadic attacks from their bases in the desert, mainly in the north.