Anita Datar, citizen from the United States is among the 20 people who were killed after armed men attacked a Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako, in the West African country of Mali on November 20, 2015. The luxurious Radisson Blu Hotel had been considered safe by people visiting Bamako. The attackers took about 170 of the staff and hotel guests hostage in the hotel during a daylong ordeal.

 

Bamako, Mali

Anita Datar was a health worker killed in Mali during an attack. Streets of Bamako, photo by LenDog64

Anita Datar was an aid worker and mother who was from Takoma Park, Maryland. Datar had been a Peace Corp volunteer in Senegal from 1997 to 1999.

The 41-year-old mom was a development worker at Palladium International Development with a 7-year-old son in elementary school. Her LinkedIn page has her listed as a Senior Manager, Field Programs at HP+. Palladium International Development seeks to expand access to health services and information.

In her position at HP+, Datar’s responsibilities were to provide senior level content knowledge, technical assistance, consultation and support for the development and execution of project/program specific strategies, particularly in Family Planning, Reproductive Health, Maternal Child Health, and HIV, her LinkedIn page states.

Prior to her work as a senior manager for HP+, Datar had worked as a Senior Technical Advisor that focused on health. She assisted groups who were locating areas where the HIV epidemic was rampant. She tried to allocate resources to those so-called HIV hot-spots.

Datar’s co-workers made it out of the hotel alive. Some of the hotel staff members barricaded themselves in rooms, because the gunmen were heavily armed. A tweet from US Africom, the US African Command, reported that 6 Americans were rescued. Eventually, security forces, overtook the attackers.

During the incident, authorities from the Radisson Blu released a statement that they had dedicated phone line to help the families of guests and employees.

Call Radisson’s family information line at: 0 800 940 164 (toll free in France) + 33170837437 (international).

 

An Al Qaeda group claimed that they were responsible for the attack.