A hostage siege situation happened in Mali yesterday revealed the world’s vulnerability to violent extremist terrorist attacks.
French soldiers leave the Radisson hotel in Bamako, Mali, November 20, 2015. REUTERS/Joe Penney
At 6:00am local time in Malian capital, Bamako, 5 terrorists entered to the Radisson Blu Hotel and held captive about 170 people inside, both clients and personnel of the facilities.
The African jihadi group Al-Mourabitoun, affiliated with AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) claimed responsibility of the attack on Twitter after the siege took place. It must be said that Al-Mourabitoun is mainly compound by Tuaregs and Arabs and was formed about two years ago.
According to experts, the attack could have been carried out in revenge to Malian government coordinated efforts with French Forces to retake territories under control of the terrorist group in the north of the country since 2013 when, François Holland authorized the deployment of about 3000 troops to carry out the mission against Islamist extremism in Mali.
Last week an announcement made by Iyad Ag Ghaly, the most prominent commander of Islamic extremism in which he called for attacks on French targets in the country.
Altogether with Malian Forces, French and US military were also part of the operation to free all the hostages.
By the time the siege ended, about seven hours after it started, 27 people were reported dead, including the five attackers. According to official sources the citizenships of the fatalities are: 3 Chinese (senior executives of China Railway Construction Corp.), 1 from the US (International aid emergency worker and former member of the Peace Corps), 2 Malian, 2 from Belgium, 1 Israeli, 6 Russians and 12 not confirmed yet.
International condemnation to the terrorist attack was general. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the UN, by means of his spokesman expressed “full support to the Malian authorities in their fight against terrorist and extremist groups”. Barack Obama, from Malaysia, also condemned the horrific events. Meanwhile, the French President François Holland offered all the necessary support for Mali to struggle with the expansion of Islamic terrorism in its territory.
Written by Lisbeth Mechter