25 June, 2017
A security source said a third victim was Cameroonian and that the fourth had yet to be identified.
Four assailants were killed by security forces, Mali's security minister said late yesterday, without specifying if more were on the run. "The situation is under control", said Mali's security minister, Salif Traoré.
No group has as yet claimed Sunday's assault. But Malian authorities were in no doubt that this was a terrorist operation by jihadis.
The Kangaba camp is a relaxing site frequented by Westerners and locals during the weekends.
The U.S. Embassy in Mali issued an alert about heightened dangers for foreigners at popular spots in Bamako a week ago. United Nations peacekeepers and Malian troops are targeted nearly weekly by bombings and hit-and-run attacks in the north and increasingly in the center of the country.
Some of the assailants had shouted "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is greatest" - other witnesses interviewed by AFP said. A witness told journalists that he saw one man arriving on a motorcycle, and started shooting into the crowd.
Traore who called the attack a terrorist act, said that 36 guests were rescued.
"During their exchange, he conveyed France's full support to Mali's president during this ordeal", said Macron's office.
USA citizens in #Mali, avoid the area of Hotel Kangaba.
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That attack was jointly claimed by both the regional al-Qaida affiliate and a group known as Al Mourabitoun, which was founded by Moktar Belmoktar after he fell out with al-Qaida leaders. About 30 people managed to escape though at least two people were killed as the assault continued into the evening, authorities said.
Tensions erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup and a Tuareg rebellion that ultimately allowed al-Qaeda-linked militant groups to take over the northern half of the country.
French military spokesman Col. Patrik Steiger said he had "strictly no information" about French military involvement in the incident in Bamako. Only in January of this year, the German parliament voted in favor of expanding Bundeswehr's military presence in Mali from 650 to 1,000 soldiers.
Despite the presence of a 12,000-strong United Nations peacekeeping mission and some of the 4,000 French troops serving in a separate counter-terrorism force operating across the Sahel region, instability is growing.
But there are wide areas of the country which are not under the control of Malian or global troops. Two jihadists also died in the attack.
That siege, which led to the death of 20 people, led to the government imposing a state of emergency which has been in place more or less ever since.
