DAKAR, Senegal
Four people were killed and eight others wounded in a terrorist attack targeting a luxury resort frequented by foreigners in southern Mali, near the capital, officials said on Monday.
"The provisional death toll of the Kangaba camp attack is four, including two assailants, and eight injured, including six security forces and two civilians," said Gen. Salif Traore, the minister of safety and civil protection in the northwest African country.
Traore said special forces were actively looking for two other assailants who managed to escape.
Eyewitnesses, however, told Anadolu Agency that more than seven people were killed in the attack, including three civilians and one Malian soldier.
The attack was blamed on terrorists but has not yet been claimed.
The attack on the Kangaba camp outside the capital Bamako began Sunday afternoon at around 4.00 pm local time (1600GMT), Traore said.
Mali’s special anti-terrorism force (FORSAT) managed to evacuate 36 people from the camp, including 13 French nationals, 14 Malians, two Spaniards, two Egyptians, one Hungarian, two Dutch, one Italian, and one Cameroonian, Traore added
The Kangaba camp is a relaxing site frequented by Westerners and locals during the weekends.
History of attacks
Militants have targeted several Malian hotel resorts in recent years.
In November 2015, more than 20 people were killed in an attack that targeted a luxury hotel in Bamako, when around 170 people were taken hostage by terrorists.
The attack was later claimed by al-Mourabitoune, a militant group affiliated to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
In March 2015, five people were killed, including two Westerners, in a restaurant attack in Bamako.
Tensions erupted in Mali in 2012 following a failed coup and a Tuareg rebellion that ultimately allowed al-Qaeda-linked militant groups to take over the northern half of the country.
In 2015, a peace deal was signed between the government and some insurgent groups.
But political and community disputes continue to fuel tensions in northern Mali, thus undermining the implementation of the peace agreement.
