Mali begins three days of mourning for hotel attack victims

Meanwhile, Mali has begun three days of national mourning following the attack.

Political analyst Issa N’diaye said the Radisson was the ideal target for multiple reasons, one being the many foreigners who frequently stay there.

The assault on the hotel, catering to the country’s global elite, has fuelled security concerns in Bamako which had not witnessed the same violence as northern Mali following an ethnic Taureg rebellion in 2012 which was then hijacked by the al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Dine. 19 were killed in the hostage taking including 13 foreign nationals. In his first interview since Friday’s attack, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told Al Jazeera that despite early speculation, his intelligence service suggested that another group, the Macina Liberation Front, was responsible for it.

The investigation was “following several lines” with no certainty about the number and nationality of the perpetrators of the attacks, which have been claimed by two separate jihadist groups.

Al-Mourabitoun, the creation of former al-Qaida leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, took to Twitter and called the attack an act against Mali and France. It also commended the authorities for their swift and professional response in bringing the situation to an end.

At least two Canadians are safe after Islamic extremists stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital this morning.

A Commons spokeswomen says Patrice Martin, acting deputy principal clerk, is in Mali on a diplomatic support mission. He is an influential voice in the north, and behind him you have AQIM, which in fact controls all the extremist groups, Magassa added.

Friday’s drama follows another hotel siege in August in the central Mali town of Sevare in which five United Nations workers and four soldiers were killed.

He pointed out that the attack could only have been carried out by the enemies of peace whose designs are to clearly destabilise Mali and destroy the peace process following the signing on June 20, 2015, in Bamako of the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement between the government and the armed movements in the north.