5 dead, 2 expats, in shooting at restaurant in Mali capital

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A masked gunman sprayed bullets in a restaurant popular with foreigners in Mali’s capital early Saturday, killing five people including a French person and a Belgian national, officials and witnesses said.

Nine people were wounded including two experts at the U.N. mission, said the U.N. stabilization mission in Mali in a statement. The two are Swiss soldiers and are being flown to Senegal for treatment, said the Swiss Defense Ministry.

Mali’s president and prime minister visited the scene and called it “a criminal and terrorist act.” A government statement said an investigation has been opened and pledged to bring the perpetrators to book.  

France and Belgium condemned the attack at La Terrasse, the restaurant and bar in Bamako, and their foreign ministers confirmed the deaths of their nationals.

The Belgian killed was a security officer for the European Union, said EU president Donald Tusk. “The European Union will not be intimidated by terrorism, at home or abroad,” said Tusk. “We will remain steadfast in support of Mali and its people.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, currently visiting France, called the attack an act of cowardice. “In the end, that only strengthens our resolve to fight terrorism in all of its forms wherever it exists.” Kerry said such acts don’t intimidate but have the “exact opposite effect.”

Mali police investigators and French and U.N. police officers visited the scene Saturday.

La Terrasse is in Bamako’s Hippodrome neighborhood where many expatriates live is a restaurant, bar and nightclub.

French President Francois Hollande’s office said security had immediately been tightened around French facilities.