“After the attack happened, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the embassy in Mali immediately initiated an emergency response and no efforts were spared in the attempt of rescuing the hostages”, said Hong.
Advertisement
Security forces, right, run from the Radisson Blu hotel were gunmen attacked in Bamako, Mali, November 20, 2015.
The assault, claimed by Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al-Murabitoun group led by notorious one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, ended after Malian and worldwide troops stormed the luxury hotel.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita also declared a three-day period of national mourning.
“Our thoughts and prayers also are with those who have been injured”, he said.
In August, 12 people – including five Malian soldiers – were killed in a hostage situation and ensuing battle at a hotel in Sevare in central Mali.
According to a senior Belgian official, Geoffrey Dieudonne – an official with the Wallonia regional parliament – was killed.
China’s official news agency Xinhua, citing a statement on the website of the China Railway Construction Corp., said three executives – Zhou Tianxiang, Wang Xuanshang and Chang Xuehui – were killed.
The US-owned hotel is popular with foreign businesses and airline crews.
US President Barack Obama said the attack was yet another reminder that the “scourge of terrorism” threatened many nations.
“Once again, this barbarity only stiffens our resolve to meet this challenge”, he said.
Malian army commander Colonel Modibo Nama Traore said that 10 gunmen had stormed the hotel shouting: “Allahu Akbar”, the Arabic for “God is great”, before firing at security guards.
One of them went to a joint operations center to provide “command and control” assistance, while the other dashed to the Radisson Blu hotel and helped “move personnel out to a secure location”, he added.
There is as yet no established link with the attacks in Paris one week ago that killed 130 people. Malian police laid siege to the building and freed dozens of people.
The al-Qaeda-linked extremists were scattered from northern towns and cities, though the north remains insecure and militant attacks have extended south this year.
Advertisement
A group of Islamist gunmen involved in the attack continue to hold out against security forces, a security ministry spokesman told Reuters.
