BAMAKO // Gunmen killed four civilians and a soldier at a Mali luxury resort popular with western expatriates outside the capital Bamako, authorities said on Monday, adding that one guest was missing.
The assailants attacked the hotel on Sunday afternoon, opening fire on guests and exchanging shots with security forces.
Two of those killed were working for the European Union, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said.
“I can confirm that there were two victims among our European Union colleagues, a Malian woman and a Portuguese man,” Ms Mogherini said after an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
“A Malian solider was killed and four civilians: one Franco-Malian, one Franco-Gabonese, one Chinese and one Portuguese,” said Mali’s security minister, Salif Traore.
Although the attackers succeeded in mounting a lethal attack, security forces backed by French and UN troops rescued 36 residents including 13 French citizens.
Security minister Salif Traore said that “five terrorists were killed” in operations that continued throughout the night.
The resort was cordoned off on Monday morning as a Malian anti-terrorist squad combed the area for the missing person, a witness said.
Mr Traore said the militants had accomplices who had not been killed or detained. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
French troops and a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force have been battling to stabilise Mali, a former French colony, since France intervened in 2013 to push back extremists and allied Tuareg rebels who had taken over the country’s desert north a year earlier.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb and other Islamist groups have claimed increasingly frequent attacks on western targets in Mali and the wider West Africa region, including a raid on a Bamako hotel in 2015 which killed 20 people.
But analysts said security forces appeared to have responded quicker this time.
“One thing is sure: they are becoming more responsive,” said Adam Thiam, a Malian analyst and expert on the conflict. He said this was partly because an elite counter-terrorism unit was now properly up and running.
French president Emmanuel Macron spoke to the leader of Mali after the attack and pledged his country’s full support for the country, Mr Macron’s office said on Monday.
“France condemns with utmost firmness this murderous attack,” France’s foreign ministry said, adding that Malian and French authorities were “continuing their checks to determine the possible presence of French nationals among the victims. Research is under way to find a compatriot reported missing”.
The African Union condemned the attack and reiterated its commitment to support Mali in combating terrorism.
“I am tired, shocked. I have no other words to say,” the resort owner Manou Morgane, a French national, said. “All I want to do is to see the list of my clients. I want to find them [anyone missing].”
* Reuters and Agence France-Presse
