At least two killed as ‘jihadist’ gunmen storm hotel in Mali

At least two people died after gunmen stormed a hotel in Mali popular with tourists and took hostages, the country’s security minister said.

Gunfire rang out at the Campement Kangaba on the outskirts of Bamako, according to a security official with the UN mission known as MINUSMA.

Special forces troops later stormed the resort, freeing hostages, security minister Salif Traore said.

“It is a jihadist attack. Malian special forces intervened and about 20 hostages have been released,” said Salif Traore.

“Unfortunately for the moment there are two dead, including a Francogabonese.”

Later the number of rescuedhostageswasbelieved to be 32.

Modibo Diarra, who lives nearby, said: “I heard gunfire coming from the camp and I saw people running out of the tourist site. I learned that it was a terrorist attack.”

Malian soldiers succeeded in entering the site, according to Commandant Modibo Traore, a spokesman for the Malian special forces in the former French colony.

“The operation is ongoing and we estimate that there are between three and four assailants,” he said.

The UN official said those at the resort when the attack began included people affiliated with the French military mission as well as the UN.

The French president’s office, the defence minister’s office and the French military would not comment immediately on the attack or on media reports saying that French forces are intervening.

The French foreign ministry would not say whether any French citizens were hurt or otherwise involved in the attack in the West African country.

French military spokesman Colonel Patrik Steiger said he had “strictly no information” about French military involvement in the incident in Bamako.

He said there are no French troops based in Bamako, but about 2,000 French troops based in northern Mali fighting Islamic extremists.

France intervened in Mali in 2013 to oust Islamic extremists who had seized control of the major northern towns the year before.

While the militants were officially ousted, they have continued to launch regular attacks on UN peacekeeping and Malian military sites.

Yesterday’s violence came about a week after the US state department warned of “possible future attacks on Western diplomatic missions, other locations in Bamako that Westerners frequent”.

Religious extremism in Mali was once limited to northern areas but in recent years has spread farther south.