Home / News / Africa / I was not held hostage in Mali hotel – Dangote; as terror attack ends with 27 confirmed dead

I was not held hostage in Mali hotel – Dangote; as terror attack ends with 27 confirmed dead

The hotel attacked by Islamists in Mali
The hotel attacked by Islamists in Mali

Africa’s richest man and President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has quelled rumours claiming he was one of the hostages held when Islamists stormed a Bamako hotel, Friday.

With the businessman admitting he was in Mali a day earlier, speculations are also rife that he may have been a target of the terrorists at the hotel said to be favoured destination by visitors to the West African country.

The development comes as the hostage situation at the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, ended with security forces killing two Islamist gunmen who stormed the building earlier in the day, security sources said on Friday.

“Rumour about me being held hostage is false. I was in Mali yesterday. Thank you for your concern. My prayers with those involved,” Dangote tweeted from his official handle ‏@AlikoDangote.

Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man

Police were moving in and out of the hotel, escorting civilians, some of them wounded, a witness said. Mali’s Interior Security Minister Colonel Salif Traore, speaking on state-run television, said 76 people had been freed by security forces.

The Radisson Blu Hotel was stormed by special forces after gunmen entered it and seized 170 people. At least 30 of the hostages are known to have escaped.

However, United Nations peacekeepers have claimed sighting 27 bodies on two separate floors of the hotel.

The peacekeepers saw 12 corpses in the basement of the hotel and another 15 on the second floor, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The U.N. official added that the troops were still helping Malian authorities search the hotel.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its offshoot al-Murabitoun said they carried out the attack, according to an agency used by jihadists in the region.

Authorities in the capital say at least 18 people may have died and two soldiers wounded.

One of those killed was Geoffrey Dieudonne, a member of parliament in Belgium’s Wallonia region.

A journalist in the lobby of the hotel said that hostages were leaving the hotel. It is not clear how many survived.

Eyewitnesses said the gunmen had entered the hotel shooting and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic.

Mali’s presidency has tweeted (in French) thanking the security forces and friendly countries for their support in responding to the attacks.

US Special Forces had helped in the hostage rescue operation. French Special Forces were also dispatched to the scene.

Malian security forces have been working their way up the building to where the gunmen were reportedly entrenched.

There is as yet no established link with the attacks in Paris one week ago that killed 130 people.

“It is too really too soon to speculate” on whether the attacks may be related, Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk said. “The groups in Mali aren’t particularly connected to the ISIS groups,” he added, using an acronym for Islamic State.

One of the rescued hostages, celebrated Guinean singer Sékouba ‘Bambino’ Diabate, said he had overheard two of the assailants speaking in English as they searched the room next to his.

“We heard shots coming from the reception area. I didn’t dare go out of my room because it felt like this wasn’t just simple pistols – these were shots from military weapons,” Diabate told Reuters by phone.

“The attackers went into the room next to mine. I stayed still, hidden under the bed, not making a noise,” he said. “I heard them say in English ‘Did you load it?’, ‘Let’s go’.”

 

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