Radisson hotel atrocity: #PrayforMali as social media users react to terror attack

Many people posted not enough attention had been paid to Mali in comparison with the Nigerian or Paris attacks

French and Malian flags fly in a marketplace in a northern Malian town (Getty)

People have voiced their support for Mali following an attack on a hotel that claimed as many as 20 people's lives.

The #PrayforMali hashtag was taken up by social media users who also noted how few people changed their pictures to the Malian flag following the attack claimed by a group affiliated with al-Qaeda.

Ten gunmen burst into the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Bamako at around 7am on Friday. The men proceeded to take around 170 people – 140 guests and 30 staff – hostage before French and Malian security forces stormed the hotel and ended the siege around nine hours later.

Mali has been plagued by a long-running insurgency and has had around 1,300 French soldiers deployed to the former colony since 2013. More than 10,000 UN troops are also stationed in Mali, and are frequently the target of Islamist attacks.

The support stands in contrast to the outpouring following both the Paris attacks in which 130 people died and the most recent Nigerian attacks, which claimed 32 lives.

Following the attacks in France, approximately seven million tweets were posted using the #PrayforParis hashtag with huge numbers of Facebook users changing their profiles pictures to the Tricolour.

In comparison, almost 100,000 people tweeted their support for Nigeria (#PrayforNigeria) with a fraction of that figure tweeting their support for Mali (#PrayforMali), according to social analytics platform Topsy.

Facebook announced it would turn on its “safety” feature following the Nigerian attacks but did not make a similar announcement following the attack on the Radisson.