SA man tells of his lucky escape

A JEFFREYS Bay engineer based in Mali, West Africa, told Independent reporters on Friday that he had barricaded himself inside an international agency building close to the Radisson Blu Hotel when he realised it was under attack. He listened in horror as news filtered through to his hiding place that people were being killed at the besieged hotel.

Several South African pilots who work for the mining industry, and on humanitarian missions, are understood to have taken shelter in the same building during the terrorist onslaught.

The engineer said the men had replaced other pilots who were sent home in August after surviving a similar attack at the Hotel Byblos, in the town of Sevare, in which 13 people were killed.

Texting

On Friday night, after the liberation of the hostages in the hotel, the engineer said because of the nature of his work he no longer feared for his safety.

“You become used to this way of life. (I have) been threatened to be killed, shot at, car burnt, etc. (I am) not worried.”

The man, whose identity is being concealed at his request, said he and the pilots had an adequate supply of food and water, as well as camp beds and sleeping bags, and “could have held out for some time”.

At the height of the siege the engineer relayed information in terse bursts over a couple of hours to our sister newspaper, the Weekend Argus, via social media as reports of more deaths surfaced and Special Forces operatives made their way through the luxury hotel.

“US special forces on the scene with the French.

“Malian special forces already up to 6th floor. More than 3 are dead. Were shot through hotel doors,” he texted on his phone.

Later the engineer reported an escalating death toll. Then he wrote: “City dead quiet.”

Around 6pm on Friday night he messaged: “They took 18 bodies out of the hotel. I think it will be over soon.”

When the armed forces wrested back control of the hotel and killed the insurgents, the final death toll was put at around 27.