BAMAKO, Mali - On most weekends, every table at the Canoe Club, a stylish riverside bistro and bar, is reserved long in advance. Western diplomats and United Nations staffers rub elbows with Malian officials and business travelers late into the ...
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National mourning in Mali after gunmen storm luxury hotel
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Gunmen took hostages and killed at least 20 at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali.
BAMAKO, Mali — On most weekends, every table at the Canoe Club, a stylish riverside bistro and bar, is reserved long in advance. Western diplomats and United Nations staffers rub elbows with Malian officials and business travelers late into the evening, noshing on paella or pizza and enjoying French wine and champagne.
On Saturday, a day after terrorists invaded the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in this poor West African capital, taking 130 people hostage and leaving 21 dead, the Canoe Club was deserted. Idle waiters repolished glasses or refolded linen napkins. Patrick Aleine, the chef and co-owner, sat at the empty bar in a despondent funk.
“This is a disaster,” he said, speaking in French. “We have always tried to make foreigners feel at ease and secure here, and we are always full. Today, there is not a single customer. Tomorrow, there is not a single table reserved. I am staying open for now, but if the foreigners don’t start coming back, the Malians won’t come either. Then we will be finished.”
On the surface, the crowded, hardscrabble city of nearly 2 million people appeared to return to normal with astonishing speed so soon after a horrific terrorist attack.
Motorbike traffic clogged the narrow streets and red-dirt alleys. Fishermen poled canoes on the Niger River, which divides the capital. Women with babies on their backs hung laundry outside tin shanties, sold baskets of fruit or ladled out rice and stew at lunch stands. Every few hours, the Muslim call to prayer echoed from mosques scattered across the city.
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In the morning, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita announced a 10-day state of emergency, giving security officials extra powers to enter homes without a warrant and to ban public rallies or marches. He also declared three days of national mourning, acting to tamp down public reaction to the violence. Police and army troops were stationed on many corners, and armored pickup trucks full of combat troops circled the Radisson Blu and other sensitive areas of the city.
Later, the president visited some victims of the hotel attack in a local hospital and toured the hotel, accompanied by Prime Minister Modibo Keita and surrounded by bodyguards. Camera crews, blocked from following them inside, peered at glass and debris strewn across the lobby floor. Amid the scrum, a group of grim-faced Western guests emerged with loads of baggage and were hustled into waiting SUVs by armed escorts, headed out of the country.
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BAMAKO, Mali - On most weekends, every table at the Canoe Club, a stylish riverside bistro and bar, is reserved long in advance. Western diplomats and United Nations staffers rub elbows with Malian officials and business travelers late into the ...
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