Mali declares 10-day state of emergency

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he wanted global cooperation to combat terrorism in the wake of a militant attack on a luxury hotel in Mali that killed 19 people including six Russians.

Keita said that Mali will not shut down just as Paris and NY did not close down after 9/11 and the deadly storm of attacks respectively.

President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita vowed in a televised speech that “terror will not win” and described the attackers as having “decided to break with humanity”.

The statement came as foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said several Russians were among the dead in Mali.

Most of the hotel guests and staff were freed hours later when Malian special forces, French special forces and off-duty United States servicemen stormed the hotel to end the siege.

The president assured that the siege was over and announced a 10-day state of emergency, which began Friday night. The president, who cut a short visit to a regional summit in Chad, said two militants also died.

The identities of the armed gunmen in Radisson hotel is yet to be ascertained.

“Once again, this barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge”, he said.

Malian television broadcast chaotic scenes from inside as police and other security personnel ushered bewildered guests along corridors to safety.

Momani, who is also the minister of state for media affairs and communications, asserted that the government stands by the government of Mali in its efforts to combat terrorism. Most of the Dutch force is based in Gao, but there are a few officers at the United Nations mission headquarters in Bamako.

The claim by the Saharan jihadist group allied to al-Qaeda that they were behind the attack is a reminder that the country still faces an insurgency, says the BBC’s Frank Gardner. Despite a French-led military intervention in 2013 that drove the extremists from cities and towns, attacks have continued and extended farther south this year, including an assault on a Bamako restaurant popular with foreigners in March.

He says France stepped in two years ago at Mali’s request to drive al-Qaeda terrorists who took control of two thirds of that vast country and were threatening the capital Bamako.