American killed in Mali worked to improve global health

Mali troops try to control a crowd of onlookers near the Radisson Blu hotel, after an attack by gunmen on the hotel in Bamako, Mali, Friday, Nov. 20, 2015. Islamic extremists armed with guns and grenades stormed the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital Friday morning, and security forces worked to free guests floor by floor. AP

WASHINGTON — As a Peace Corps volunteer, expert in global health and the mother of a young boy, Anita Ashok Datar devoted her life to caring for and helping others, her family said.

Datar, of Takoma Park, Maryland, was one of at least 20 people killed in Friday’s terror attack on a hotel in Mali, the State Department confirmed in a statement.

No other US citizens were believed to have died in the attack, carried out by heavily armed Islamic extremists at a Radisson hotel in the Malian capital of Bamako.

READ: Obama: Mali attack ‘stiffens resolve’

“We are devastated that Anita is gone,” her family said in a statement issued through the State Department. “It’s unbelievable to us that she has been killed in this senseless act of violence and terrorism.”

Datar, 41, was a senior manager at Palladium Group, an international development organization with offices in Washington, her family said. As a public health expert, she focused on family planning and HIV issues, work that took her to Africa often in the past 15 years. She also worked in Asia and South America, according to her LinkedIn profile.

“Everything she did in her life she did to help others — as a mother, public health expert, daughter, sister and friend,” the family statement said. “And while we are angry and saddened that she has been killed, we know that she would want to promote education and healthcare to prevent violence and poverty at home and abroad, not intolerance.”

READ: Mali in mourning after at least 27 killed in hotel attack

The family said that of all her accomplishments, Datar was “most proud of her son.” Her Facebook page is filled with pictures of the boy.

Born in Massachusetts, Datar grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Rutgers, her family said. She worked in Senegal with the Peace Corps for more than two years and earned master’s degrees in public health and public administration from Columbia.

In addition to her son, parents and a brother, she is survived by “many, many friends around the world,” the statement said.

“We mourn American Anita Datar and all those lost in #MaliAttacks,” Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted late Friday.