Several foreigners held hostage, eight killed in Mali hotel attack

Several hostages, including a number of foreigners, were being held in a standoff in central Mali Friday after gunmen stormed a hotel amid shootout with soldiers that left at least eight people dead, the military said.

A Ukrainian hostage managed to escape from the “four or five terrorists” who were still barricaded inside the hotel in Sevare, telling soldiers that he had been with three South Africans and a Russian when the shooting began.

Three bodies were still lying next to a burned-out minibus at the entrance to the hotel, a military sources said, as night fell.

“The hostage taking is still going on. The death toll now is three dead soldiers and four wounded,” the source said Friday evening. “Two terrorists have also been killed and there are three bodies lying in front of the hotel next to a burned-out minibus.”

Is is unclear who the foreigners being held at the Byblos hotel are. The hotel is popular with both foreign visitors and troops.

The governments of Russia and Ukraine confirmed earlier they each had a national among the hostages.

French President Francois Hollande said French citizens could also “possibly” be caught up in the attack, without giving further details. There was no information on Malian hostages.

A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Mali told RIA Novosti state news agency the mission had been informed of the Russian’s presence by local authorities.

“It is a member of staff of UTAir, that’s all I can say,” he said, referring to an aviation company which works with the UN mission MINUSMA. “As far as we know, there are several gunmen there who are holding this hotel,” the diplomat added, while saying it was unclear whether the hostages were being held at gunpoint or the attackers were merely “sheltering there”.

Situated only a few kilometres from the regional capital Mopti, Sevare, which has an airbase, is a key staging post on the road to Mali’s desert north which fell to Islamist extremists in 2012.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the morning attack, and no official comment from the government of the west African country, which is facing a resurgence in jihadist violence, two years after a French-led offensive routed three Islamist factions from most areas under their control.

– Town ‘in lockdown’ –

A Malian security source said the raid was a failed bid to kidnap Russians working as UN peacekeepers, who escaped unharmed.

Malian troops surrounded the hotel and shot dead one of the attackers who was wearing an explosive belt, a military source said.

“The army has completely sealed off the area and the town is in lockdown. They have asked people to stay at home,” a local official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sporadic shooting was heard around the Byblos and neighbouring Debo hotel at around 1500 GMT, several hours after the initial assault. One resident told AFP she was woken by the sound of gunfire and was hiding at home with her family.

Speaking as he welcomed home a Frenchwoman held hostage for nearly six months in Yemen, Hollande said that “in Mali an operation is underway which could possibly involve French nationals” and called on French citizens in danger zones to take “the greatest precautions”.

France has over 1,000 soldiers in northern Mali as part of an regional anti-terrorist operation.

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokeswoman Mariana Betsa said earlier on Twitter that Kiev was “taking urgent measures in order to secure the release of our national.”

Pretoria did not confirm the presence of South Africans, merely saying it was “aware of the situation” and liaising with the Malian authorities.

Malian army sources said the target of Friday’s assault appeared to be a group of Russian pilots working for MINUSMA, which has more than 10,200 military and police on the ground in Mali.

The Russian embassy in Mali said earlier that three other Russians reported captured had been found.

– Attacks spread southwards –

It was the third assault in just a week in Mali, which is still struggling to restore stability despite a landmark peace deal agreed in June to end years of unrest and ethnic divisions.

A number of foreigners have been kidnapped by Islamist militants in Mali in recent years and at least two are still being held hostage by Al-Qaeda’s front group in the region.

Three jihadist groups, including a regional Al-Qaeda offshoot AQIM, seized control of Mali’s north in 2012 before being ousted by French and Malian forces in January 2013.

The insurgents have continued to mount sporadic attacks from their bases in the desert, mainly targeting Malian and UN forces in the north.

But the attacks have spread since the beginning of the year to the centre of the country — Sevare is 620 kilometres north of the capital Bamako — and in June to the south near the borders with Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.

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