The group’s statement said attacks would continue until the government ended its “aggression against our people in the north and the center of Mali”. “I have had an update from our ambassador in Mali”.
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In August, they stormed a hotel in central Mali, killing at least 12 people in an attack similar to Friday’s. We have offices from the fields engineers regiment and from the Airforce as part of the municipal operation in Mali but no they were nowhere near the hotel so far as we know, the information we have to date, we do not have Ghanaian victims.
The previous day, the first Islamic extremist group to claim responsibility – Al-Mourabitoun, or The Sentinels – issued an audio recording purporting to identify the gunmen, using names that suggested they were Malian.
After recent terrorist attacks in Paris, where 130 people were killed, and Mali, where 19 more lost their lifes, Belgium’s capital Brussels, one of European Union’s centres, spent much of the last few days in lockdown, with armed soldiers on the streets and with all public events canceled.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a 10-day nationwide state of emergency, with a three-day mourning period starting today.
“We are following several lines, but we won’t be making a statement”, the police source told AFP.
When asked by CNN’s David McKenzie if he would request help from the global community in the wake of the attack, Keita said any country would need help after such an event, and noted the assistance already provided by France and the United States. Some survivors said the attackers spoke French.
Jean-Herve Jezequel, with the worldwide Crisis Group, said it was a “new element” for Al-Mourabitoun to position itself as defenders of the northern region – as though it were a national movement rather than just a terror group.
However, in a confusing state of affairs, yet another extremist group has also claimed they were the ones that committed the attack on the hotel.
Two attackers also died, but it’s unclear whether security forces killed them or whether they blew themselves up, mission spokesman Olivier Salgado said.
Many Malians were on Sunday determined to resume their usual lives, with noisy wedding processions in the capital, but some cautioned against too quick a return to routine. Others are concerned that Friday’s attack will have more economic repercussions for a country still recovering from a 2012-13 civil war.
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The Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation launched the following year, but large swathes of Mali remain lawless.
