Six Russians killed in Mali terrorist attack: Russia Foreign Ministry
The Russian Foreign Ministry says at least six of its citizens were among the people killed in a terrorist attack on a luxury hotel in Mali.
On Friday, gunmen stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako, taking hostage 170 people, many of them foreign nationals. The assault finally ended, but left at least 21 people dead and six others injured.
Twelve Russians working for the Volga-Dnepr cargo airline, which operates across the African continent, were reportedly caught up in the hostage-taking, but six of them were freed.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that those who died “were shot by gunmen in the restaurant literally in the first minutes of the terrorist attack on the hotel.”
Governor of Ulyanovsk region Sergei Morozov said five of the slain Russians were from the central area, declaring Monday a day of mourning in Ulyanovsk.
Earlier on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the attack, calling for a global collective cooperation to battle terrorism.
“The inhuman crime committed in Mali's capital again confirms that terrorism knows no borders and is a real danger for the whole world,” he said in a statement released by the Kremlin, adding that a “broadest international cooperation” was needed to confront terrorism.
The al-Qaeda-affiliated Mali-based al-Mourabitoun group, led by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility for the attack and the hostage-taking.
In August, a similar hostage-taking situation occurred at a hotel in the central town of Sevare, which led to the deaths of five UN workers and four Malian soldiers. A Russian UN contractor was among those rescued from the attack.
Mali has been witnessing violence linked to militant activity in its northern region since 2012. The area remains vulnerable to attacks despite a military operation led by France in 2013, which came after the UN Security Council passed a resolution on the deployment of a peacekeeping force known as the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
Back in June, Tuareg rebels, who have launched a number of uprisings since the 1960s, signed a peace deal with the Malian government aimed at ending years of unrest in the country.
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