Hostages rescued after two die in Mali resort attack

The suspected militant attack targeted Kangaba Le Campement luxury resort outside the capital Bamako. Up to 36 hostages freed after Malian special forces intervened.

An armoured vehicle drives towards Le Campement Kangaba resort following an attack where gunmen stormed the resort in Dougourakoro, to the east of the capital Bamako, Mali. June 18, 2017.
TRT World and Agencies

An armoured vehicle drives towards Le Campement Kangaba resort following an attack where gunmen stormed the resort in Dougourakoro, to the east of the capital Bamako, Mali. June 18, 2017.

Gunmen on Sunday attacked a luxury resort just outside Mali's capital Bamako, killing two people in what the security minister called a terrorist attack. At least 36 guests were rescued.

Four gunmen arriving on motorbikes and a car stormed Le Campement Kangaba, a resort near Dougourakoro, to the east of the capital Bamako. The resort is a location frequented by foreigners during the weekend. Malian security forces backed by French troops were deployed to take control of the situation.

"At first we thought they were armed bandits but we know how armed bandits operate; they don't hold territory. So now we think it is a terrorist attack," Mali's Security Minister Salif Traore told journalists late Sunday outside the entrance to the resort, part of which was on fire.

Malian security forces, United Nations peacekeeping mission vehicles and French military armoured vehicles surrounded the resort and a helicopter circled overhead.

In another news conference later, Traore said Malian forces fatally shot two of the attackers but the other two escaped and were being pursued. An attacker had been wounded and fled, leaving a submachine gun and six bottles of explosives behind, the ministry said earlier.

"We're now in the process of combing the area to verify no one is hiding anywhere," Traore said.

One of victims killed in the attack was a French-Gabonese citizen, while the other has not yet been identified, Traore said. Both were killed by gunfire. At least two hotel staff workers and two guests were also wounded by bullets, he said.

At least eight policemen were wounded in the shoot-out with the attackers, Traore said.

Mali security

Security has gradually worsened across the landlocked West African country since French forces pushed back rebel fighters in 2013 from swathes of the north they had occupied the previous year.

Initially concentrated in the north, attacks have increasingly struck the centre and south around Bamako. Al Qaeda and another militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Bamako hotel in 2015 in which 20 people were killed.

Of the 36 people who escaped unharmed, there were 13 French citizens, 14 Malians, and also Spanish, Dutch, Egyptian and Kenyan nationals, Traore said.

Daniel Okwogo, a Kenyan guest who witnessed the attack, said that about 30 minutes after his arrival he heard the gunshots. "So ... we took a cover, slipped under the bed and then the security team came and evacuated us," Okwogo said.

French troops and a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force have battled to stabilise Mali, a former French colony riven by ethnic conflict and plagued by dozens of armed groups.

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