GRAND BASSAM – Gunmen from al-Qaeda’s North African branch have
killed 16 people, including four Europeans, at a beach resort town in Ivory
Coast, the latest in a string of deadly attacks that have confirmed the
Islamists’ growing reach in West Africa.

Six
shooters targeted hotels on a beach at Grand Bassam, a weekend retreat popular
with westerners about 40 kilometres east of the commercial capital Abidjan,
before being killed in clashes with Ivorian security forces, the government
said.

“Six
attackers came onto the beach in Bassam this afternoon,” Ivorian President
Alassane Ouattara said during a visit to the site. “We have 14 civilians
and two special forces soldiers who were unfortunately killed.”

A French
man was killed in the attack, according to a French foreign ministry spokesman.
The nationalities of the other dead were not yet known, but four were European,
one officer said during a briefing attended by a Reuters reporter.

Ivory
Coast Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko later said foreign citizens from France,
Germany, Burkina Faso, Mali and Cameroon were among the victims.

The
reporter saw the bodies of three white people at Grand Bassam’s Chelsea Hotel
and another in the Hotel Etoile du Sud next door.

A short
drive from Abidjan – one of West Africa’s largest cities with around 5 million
inhabitants – Grand Bassam fills up on weekends with thousands of beachgoers.

Witnesses
said the gunmen followed a pathway onto the beach where they then opened fire
on swimmers and sunbathers before turning their attention to the packed
seafront hotels where people were eating and drinking at lunchtime.

“They
started shooting and everyone just started running. There were women and
children running and hiding,” said another witness, Marie Bassole.
“It started on the beach. Whoever they saw, they shot at.”

Security
forces moved to evacuate the area surrounding the beach. Bullet holes riddled
vehicles nearby and glass from shattered windows littered the ground.

The body
of one of the attackers, dressed in dark trousers and a blood-covered striped
shirt, lay beside the beachside entrance to one hotel, a bullet hole in his
head.

Beside
him on the sand sat a combat vest used to carry extra ammunition. Nearby, on
the ground, lay unexploded grenades.

GROWING THREAT

Al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which has carried out other recent attacks in
the region, claimed responsibility for the weekend shootings, according to the
U.S.-based SITE intelligence monitoring group, citing an AQIM statement.

It said
the attack had been carried out by just three militants.

Barely
two months ago, Islamists killed dozens of people in a hotel and cafe frequented
by foreigners in neighbouring Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. Gunmen also
attacked a hotel in the Malian capital, Bamako, late last year.

Both of
those attacks were also claimed by AQIM and raised concern that militants were
extending their reach far beyond their traditional zones of operation in the
Sahara and the arid Sahel region.

Though previously untouched by
Islamist violence, Ivory Coast, French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy
and the world’s top cocoa producer, has long been considered a target for
militants.

It has
been on high alert since the Ouagadougou attacks, and security has been visibly
bolstered at potential targets, including shopping malls and high-end hotels.

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.

President
Macky Sall of Senegal, another country seen as a likely target for AQIM, called
upon West African countries to step up their cooperation against terrorism and
violent extremism.

France’s
President Francois Hollande, meanwhile, denounced the shootings in the former
French colony as a “cowardly attack.”

“France will bring its
logistical support and intelligence to Ivory Coast find the attackers. It will
pursue and intensify its cooperation with its partners in the fight against
terrorism,” he said in a statement.

– Reuters