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Located around 40 kilometres from Abidjan, the Ivorian beach resort of Grand-Bassam has become the symbol a tragedy – that of the first major terrorist attack in Ivory Coast. On March 13, 2016, 19 people were gunned down, including nine foreigners, and about 30 injured. In December 2022, four men were sentenced to life imprisonment by the courts for aiding and abetting the terrorists. The alleged masterminds of the attack were sentenced in absentia. But the trial failed to shed any real light on the attack. FRANCE 24’s Sophie Lamotte and Sadia Mandjo report from Grand-Bassam, scarred forever by the tragedy.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Grand-Bassam is home to a huge beach on the Atlantic Ocean that’s highly popular with tourists – expats and Ivorians alike. On that fateful day in 2016, three assailants armed with Kalashnikovs opened fire on the beach, then on hotels along the coast. The horror went on for 45 minutes before the gunmen were finally shot dead by Ivorian special forces.
The attack was claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). A few months earlier, Ivory Coast had arrested jihadists from the group and handed them over to Mali. The Grand-Bassam attack was likely payback for the country’s cooperation with France in anti-jihadist operations in the wider Sahel region.
