An injured victim of the Grand Bassam attack evacuated by Ivorian Security forces. Photo: Reuters...
The United Nations Security Council is
condemning the attacks in Ivory Coast over the weekend that left 18
people dead, including 15 civilians.
The council in a statement today called for the perpetrators and organizers of the attack to be brought to justice.
Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, has since claimed responsibility.
Grand Bassam, a popular beach resort
about 25 miles east of Abidjan, capital of Ivory Coast, was a site of
bloodshed when six gunmen indiscriminately opened fire on locals and
foreigners on retreat.
The gunmen were described by witnesses
as “Africans, armed with Kalashnikovs and grenade belts and dressed in
casual clothes who shot at “anyone they could find” as they “calmly”
walked along the packed beachfront of Grand Bassam …”
Speaking on the attack, Hamed Bakayoko,
Ivory Coast’s Interior Minister, stated that among the victims were
foreigners from France, Germany, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Cameroon.
The attack is not the first of its kind.
There was a similar attack in November, last year, when 20 were killed
at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, and another in
January this year when gunmen attacked and killed 30 at the Hotel
Splendid and Cappuccino Café in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou.
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