The attack comes a week after a deadly siege at a Bamako hotel, and at a time of heightened global concern about terrorism after killings in Paris and the downing of the Russian jet, both claimed by Islamic State jihadists.
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Earlier Saturday, the UN Security Council, in a separate statement, “condemned in the strongest terms” the attack and called on “the government of Mali to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice and stressed that those responsible for the attack should be held accountable”.
He did not name the victims’ nationalities although a United Nations source said two were peacekeepers from neighboring Guinea.
By that point, the assailants were heading upstairs where they took dozens of hostages, launching a standoff with Malian security forces that lasted more than seven hours and claimed 19 lives in addition to their own.
President Keita said on Saturday that his country would not yield in the wake of the Islamist militant attack on the luxury hotel in the capital Bamako. A local deputy for Kidal, Ahmoudene Ag Ikmasse, also blamed radical Islamists.
In northern Mali, a French-led military operation drove out Islamist fighters with links to al Qaeda after they occupied part of the region in 2012.
Three Islamist groups claimed responsibility for the attack on the Radisson: Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI); splinter group al Mourabitoun; and Massina Liberation Front (MLF). Yet violence disperse and has continued into once safe areas in the south. Insecurity in Mali is on the rise in spite of a peace accord signed a few weeks ago between the Malian government and Tuareg rebels who have been pressing for secession in the North.
“I wish to reaffirm that these attacks will not deter the United Nations to support the Malian people and the peace process, including through assistance to the implementation of the Peace Agreement and reconciliation in Mali, ” he said. Neighbouring countries are also battling extremist insurgencies, with the Isis-affiliated Boko Haram extending its bloody campaign from Nigeria to Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
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Two people were arrested this week in connection with the raid.
