SALT LAKE CITY — A last-minute decision to go home instead of staying at a hotel may have saved Yeah Samake's life.
The former BYU student and one-time presidential candidate of Mali told KSL Newsradio's Doug Wright he was scheduled to stay last night at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali's capital. But before boarding a flight back to Mali, Samake decided to drive to his home city some 15 miles away.
Early Friday morning, the hotel was stormed by Islamic extremists armed with guns and grenades, killing at least three people and taking numerous hostages, according to initial reports.
Samake, who is now Mali's ambassador to India, said Malian special forces have since taken control of the hotel and freed all hostages, but an official casualty count has not been made.
"The first thing that Malians are talking about is how impressed and grateful we are that our special forces were able to respond so rapidly and get things under control," Samake said. "They were able to get in and, floor by floor, were able to free many hostages. We do not know of any more hostages being kept."
Early reports indicated that 140 guests and 30 employees were "locked in" the hotel after it was stormed by 10 gunmen. The gunmen allowed some hostages to leave the building, but only after reciting verses from the Quran, the Associated Press reported.
Samake said it is still unclear which Muslim extremist groups might be behind the raid. Malian Army commander Modibo Nama Traore said the gunmen shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," while storming the hotel, a saying related to a Jihadist movement, Samake said. But the attack has not been claimed by any particular group, he said.
The hotel was stormed one week after the terrorist attacks in Paris, where at least 130 people were killed.
In 2012, several Jihadi groups took over the northern half of Mali, formerly a French colony, but were driven out by French forces in 2013. Since then, the country has made progress in establishing peace thanks to efforts of the country's president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Samake said.
"Absolutely, there are good things happening," he said. "Mali is going through a peace process."
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