Deadly hostage siege underway at hotel in central Mali
At least eight people have been killed and several others taken hostages in an ongoing siege at a hotel popular with foreigners and UN peacekeepers in central Mali.
Early on Friday, heavily-armed assailants stormed the Byblos hotel near the airport in the central town of Sevare, located around 600 kilometers northeast of the capital Bamako.
The Malian army sources confirmed that at least five soldiers and three gunmen have been killed so far in the ongoing fierce fighting and gun battles.
The Friday attack is suspected to be an attempt to kidnap foreign guests.
A Ukrainian hostage who escaped late on Friday confirmed that three South Africans and a Russian remained inside the hotel. Earlier reports said a French national was also inside the hotel.
Witnesses and local residents said smoke was seen rising from the hotel and heavy weapons fire was heard as government forces moved in to dislodge the gunmen.
"The Fama (Malian armed forces) have sealed off the area... and the operation is still going on," media outlets quoted a Malian military source as saying.
The hotel is popular with foreigners and troops from the the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
Several foreigners have been kidnapped by militants in Mali in recent years.
The country plunged into turmoil after President Amadou Toumani Toure was overthrown in a military coup on March 22, 2012. The coup leaders said they staged the coup d’état in response to the government’s inability to contain a rebellion in the northern Mali.
Extremist attacks have long been concentrated in the north, but began spreading at the beginning of the year to the center of the country and, in June, to the south, near the borders with Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.
In January 2013, French soldiers were deployed to Mali under the pretext of putting an end to the crisis in the West African country, a former colony of France.
Violence rages on across the West African country despite the presence of an 11,000-strong UN peacekeeping force, which has been stationed in the country since July 2013, as well as 1,000 French forces.
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