ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST // Gunmen killed 16 people outside three hotels yesterday in the Ivory Coast resort town of Grand Bassam, in an attack claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the north African branch of the terror group.
“Six attackers came onto the beach in Bassam this afternoon ... We have 14 civilians and two special forces soldiers who were unfortunately killed,” president Alassane Ouattara said during a visit to the site. He said that the six attackers were also killed.
A French foreign ministry spokesman said a national was among those killed.
French president Francois Hollande yesterday denounced the “cowardly attack”.
“France will bring its logistical support and intelligence to Ivory Coast to find the attackers. It will pursue and intensify its cooperation with its partners in the fight against terrorism”.
The attack sent tourists fleeing through the historic Ivory Coast resort town. Bloody bodies were sprawled on the beach in photos apparently taken at the scene and posted on social media.
Ivory Coast’s government said that security sweeps were being carried out.
“We urge the public to remain calm,” state minister Hamed Bakayoko said.
The bursts of gunfire sent people running from the beach at Grand-Bassam, a Unesco World Heritage site and popular destination for Ivorians and foreigners about 40 kilometres east of Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial centre. It was the third major attack on a tourism center in a West African country since November.
“We don’t know where they came from, and we don’t know where they’ve gone,” said a receptionist at the Etoile de Sud hotel in Grand-Bassam. Everyone in the hotel was safe, and gendarmerie were present, he said. Beachgoers could be seen lining up with their hands above their heads as they filed out of the area.
Residents who heard the gunfire hid in their homes, said Josiane Sekongo, 25, who lives across from one of the many beachfront hotels.
An American embassy delegation was in Grand-Bassam on Sunday, but the US embassy in Abidjan said it was monitoring the situation and had no evidence US citizens were targeted, nor confirmed reports that any were harmed.
Dozens of people were killed in the earlier attacks on West African tourist sites, starting with a siege at a Malian hotel in November and then an assault on a hotel and cafe in Burkina Faso in January. Analysts have warned for months that Ivory Coast, which shares a border with both of those affected countries, could be hit by extremists as well.
The West African attacks indicate that extremist attacks are spreading from North Africa, where a beach attack in June killed 38 people in Tunisia.
"I have always said that Abidjan [Ivory Coast] and Dakar [Senegal] are the next targets for jihadist groups because these two countries represent windows of France in Africa," said Lemine Ould Salem, an expert on Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and author of a book The Bin Laden of the Sahara.
He said the attackers could be from Moktar Belmoktar’s Al Mourabitoun, but that Boko Haram should not be ruled out. The Nigeria-based Boko Haram pledged to ISIL last year.
* Reuters and Associated Press
