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Mali extends state of emergency until end of March

Thursday, 31 December 2015 9:32 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 31 December 2015 9:32 AM ]

A UN peacekeeping soldier stands by a cordon set up at the site of an attack on a UN residence in Bamako, Mali, May 20, 2015. (AFP photo )

Authorities in the West African country of Mali have extended a state of emergency declared after a deadly militant attack on a hotel in the capital city last month.

Officials said a nationwide state of emergency is agreed to go on for three more months.

The decision came after the government submitted a bill on Monday allowing the fresh extension to March 31 "because of serious threats to the security of persons and their property," an official statement said.

Mali’s National Assembly approved the bill unanimously in a Tuesday vote.

On November 20, gunmen laid a siege at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, which claimed the lives of 20 people, including 14 foreigners.

Malian troops take position outside the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, November 20, 2015. (AFP photo)

The assailants held around 170 guests and staff hostage for about nine hours before Malian and international forces stormed the luxury hotel to free the captives.

Both the Macina Liberation Front, a Malian militant group, and the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Mourabitoun group, led by Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, claimed responsibility for the hotel attack and hostage-taking.

Mali has been witnessing violence since 2012. The state of emergency in the crisis-hit country was extended twice and the latest was about to expire on Thursday.

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