Two alleged accomplices have been arrested. Ten days after the attack, Cheick Coulibaly, a Malian survivor, and employee at the hotel, recounts his experience of this tragic event.

The day started as usual for the young Cheick Coulibaly, a security guard at the Radisson Blu. Like every morning, he sets off to go to work. "I start at 7 am. That day, I remember being a bit late. I did not leave home until about 7:03. Obviously, once on the road I tried to hurry, so I would not get any comments about being late. Arriving in the embassy district, I noticed that the road leading to my workplace was blocked. Despite this, I still managed to gain entry to the hotel," Cheick says. By perservering to get to work, Cheick did not know he was going to throw himself into a lion's den.

Arriving at the entrance of the hotel reserved for staff, he heard gunfire. Although surprised by the noise, Cheick still managed to get in via a service door that only employees of the Radisson know about. "Convinced that they needed me, I entered through a small door located behind the building. It is not known to everyone. It is a door leading to the basement of the hotel. When I entered, I heard shots very close. Then I realized that something very serious was happening. So I rushed to the exit to escape. But it was no longer possible. There was shooting everywhere. The bullets were going in all directions. With the other people who were there, we decided to quickly shut and block the door. The terrorists did try to dislodge us but luckily the door was armored. We were scared to death," he testifies.

Panicking, the young Coulibaly called his father to tell him that the hotel where he works is under attack. "That phone call plunged the whole family into anguish," says Lassana Tchiémogo Coulibaly, the father of the young man. Coulibaly's family lives in Kati, 15 km from Bamako. "I was terribly worried. For the first time in my life, I felt helpless. My son was in danger and I could do nothing for him. It was unbearable," he recalls.

Cheick will never forget that bloody day. The trauma, he said, remains etched in his memory, especially as he lost three of his colleagues in the attack. "One of my colleagues was shot in the leg and another in the buttock. Three others were murdered in cold blood," he described. "Seeing my dead colleagues, I prayed and waited for death to come to take me too. It was the first time I saw such terrible scenes," he says.

The long wait to be rescued was indescribable. The hours spent in the hotel's basement seemed to Cheick Coulibaly weeks. "It was only around 13 hours before the police came to liberate us. We were driven to the stadium with the other hostages. We were in shock. Around 4 pm, the army told us to go home. It was finally over. We could join our families," he continued.

The young man was lucky to be unharmed in the attack but the trauma caused to him that day still haunts him. "Since that day, I have no peace of mind. I think all the time about my colleagues who died. At night I often have nightmares about it," he says. To try to forget, the young Coulibaly even plans to change jobs. This is also the desire of many other employees of the Radisson Blu, which was previously thought to be the most secure hotel in Bamako.