The extremists vented their anger on the West African nation at the Grand Bassam beach resort on Sunday, March 13, 2016 and killed 16 persons.
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“We must reinforce our cooperation so that the terrorists have no chance” of success, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault yesterday, who arrived in Abidjan earlier Tuesday along with Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Al Qaeda’s North African branch has said its Sunday attack on a beach resort in Ivory Coast was revenge for France’s offensive against Islamist militants in the Sahel region.
Though it is still unclear who is behind the attack, in a recent statement posted on a social media account linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The attack is the first such militant raid in Ivory Coast.
Three Ivorian special forces personnel were killed and three of the attackers were also among the dead. Barkhane, which succeeded Serval in 2014, has at least 3,500 soldiers deployed across five countries-Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Nigerto combat jihadist jihadist insurgencies. It has also joined a campaign against Islamic State (IS), which is based in Iraq and Syria.
French ministers are expected to meet President Alassane Ouattara, visit the site of the attack and meet with representatives of the French community.
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Ivory Coast has French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy and has recovered from a decade of political crisis to boast one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. The group had also claimed the attack on a top hotel and a nearby restaurant in the Burkina Faso capital in January that killed 30 people, and a hostage siege in the Malian capital Bamako in November that cost 20 lives.
