A 10-day state of emergency has been announced in Mali following an attack on a hotel by suspected Islamist militants in the capital Bamako, in which gunmen killed 19 people.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita of Mali
A 10-day state of emergency has been announced in the West African nation of Mali following an attack on a hotel by suspected Islamist militants in the capital Bamako, in which gunmen killed 19 people.
A UN official earlier said the death toll had reached 27 people after preliminary count of the bodies.
President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita also declared three days of mourning.
The president, who came home early from a regional summit in Chad, said two militants had been killed.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliate al-Murabitoun said they carried out the attack.
More than 130 hotel guests were freed when Malian special forces, French special forces and off-duty US servicemen, stormed the Radisson Blu hotel to break the siege.