A dead victim being taken out of the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako

The Massina Liberation Front (MLF) has claimed responsibility for an attack on the Radisson Blu luxury hotel in Bamako,  Mali’s capital that killed 19 people, according to a statement sent to French broadcaster Radio France International late on Sunday.

MLF, a relatively new group associated with a new wave of attacks in the central and southern parts of the African nation, is the third organisation to claim responsibility for Friday’s attack, after al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Mourabitoun, led by the elusive one-eyed Jihadist, Mokhtar Belmokhtar.