The group, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has claimed the attack, and officials say the gunmen have been “neutralised”.
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The gunmen killed 14 people, according to Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara; he says the six militants have also been killed. According to a report from CNN, the casualties include 14 civilians as well as two soldiers.
It happened at the Etoile du Sud complex in Grand Bassam, a resort popular with Western tourists, some 40 kilometres east of the country’s main city, Abidjan.
Gunmen all dressed in black opened fire around lunchtime while people were eating and drinking at the beachside bars and restaurants or swimming in the ocean.
Josiane Sekongo, 25, who lives across from one of the town’s many beachfront hotels, said she ran outside when she heard gunshots and saw people running away from the beach.
The assailants were heavily armed and shot at guests at the L’Etoile du Sud, a large hotel, another witness told AFP. He said that only three attackers were killed, not the six that was claimed on Sunday.
As the scale of the tragedy become evident, regional and world leaders expressed their support for Ivory Coast, which has recently emerged from a decade of political turmoil and civil war to become one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
The White House also condemned it “in the strongest terms”, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said. “There were four attackers”, he said.
Local people stand near a taped off area that formed part of the crime scene outside the Nouvelle Paillote Hotel, one of the three hotels involved in an attack at Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast, today.
“Five men, five women and a child are dead”, a military source said on condition of anonymity after the assault in the resort popular with Westerners. Many other countries in the region have been hit hard by Islamist militant insurgencies.
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. We will also continue partnering with regional governments and global partners to fight the terrorists who seek to undermine efforts by West African governments to build tolerant and inclusive societies, improve governance, and expand economic opportunity.
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The US and former colonial master France offered offered to help the Ivorian government find the perpetrators, with French President Francois Hollande condemning the “cowardly attack”.
