from WaPo
“One Senegalese guest, Aïssatou Gueye, was in her room when the attackers entered. Like many other guests, she was there to attend a large mining conference.

“They were asking people to recite the Koran and if they do, nothing will happen to them,” she told a reporter outside the hotel. Aissatou saw one person shot dead before she ran to safety.”

one can read more here…

Mali is a former French ‘colony.’ It sits directly south of France, as the crow flies.

It is in Northern Africa. The majority of people speak French. Mali was once part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, slaves, and other high-value commodities. As a result, it has a history of corruption, human trafficking and hard rock abor for gemstone gain. The region for centuries has been rocked by wars including recent ones fought by pro-democracy movements.