Mali-(Berberanews)-Five people have been killed in a machine-gun and grenade attack on a bar in Mali’s capital, Bamako.
A masked gunman opened fire at La Terrasse bar, killing a French national, witnesses said.
A Belgian security official working for the EU and three Malians also died in the attack.
One witness said an attacker shouted “God is Great” in Arabic (“Allahu Akbar”). It is the first attack of its kind in the capital.
It is not clear who carried out the attack, but al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants have been fighting the army in northern Mali for a number of years.
France, the former colonial power in Mali, intervened two years ago to stop their advance south on Bamako.
French President Francois Hollande condemned the attack as “cowardly”.
He spoke by phone to Malian counterpart Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and they “decided on common measures to strengthen security in Mali”, the French presidency said.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called the attack a “cowardly act of terror”.
Bbc
