President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced the death toll and said seven people were wounded in the attack, which has been claimed by jihadist group Al Mourabitoun and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
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Instead, Malian troops pressed into the hotel, finding more than a dozen bodies of hostages.
Friday’s attack came a week after Islamic State followers exploded devices and fired into cafes and a concert venue in Paris, killing 129 people.
In addition to an American public health worker murdered in a terrorist raid on a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital on Friday, the 19 dead included six Russians, three Chinese, two Belgians and an Israeli national.
Mali said the gunmen had “no more hostages” and were being chased.
At least 10 people have been confirmed dead in Friday’s attack on a five-star hotel in Bamako, Mali, Malian army Col. Mamadou Coulibaly told reporters, per CNN.
“Nowhere in the world is one safe from these barbarians from another time”, Keita said. The CMA is a coalition of groups seeking autonomy in northern Mali and includes ethnic Arabs and Tuaregs.
Malian television broadcast chaotic scenes from inside as police and other security personnel ushered bewildered guests along corridors to safety. At least 130 hostages were reportedly freed after Malian special forces cleared the hotel floor by floor.
The bloodshed at the Radisson Blu resort in Mali, a previous French colony, evoked the problems French troops as well as United Nations peacekeepers encounter in recovering protection and order in a West African state that has fought rebels and also militants in its weakly-governed desert north for many years. French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said he was not aware of any French nationals killed in the attacks.
Those who died “were shot by gunmen in the restaurant literally in the first minutes of the terrorist attack on the hotel”, the ministry said.
Guinean singer Sekouba Bambino Diabate, who was among the survivors, told AFP the gunmen spoke English among themselves.
“They’ve penetrated inside the hotel”.
Witnesses in the area said police had surrounded the hotel and were blocking roads leading into the neighborhood.
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The air carrier has got in touch with the Russian and French embassies in Mali, it said. The assault finally ended, but left at least 21 people dead and six others injured.
