Ivory Coast - hotels targeted on beach resort

Posted: 14/03/2016

14 March 2016 - RPS Partnership

Contact [email protected] for any travel to West Africa, particularly the Ivory Coast. RPS knows this area well and can give sound advice for travel there as well as design training courses to ensure your staff are safe. We can also assist you with your planning for all contingencies.

Gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles have attacked a beach resort near the Etoil du Sud Hotel in Grand Bassam. Initial media reports claimed that two heavily armed gunmen conducted the attack and at least six people have been killed. Ivorian and French Special Forces have been deployed to the area and the beach has been closed and it is thought that all gunmen were killed. Additionally, approximately 16 other people were killed in the attack. 

The al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Prior to the 13 March attack, Cote d'Ivoire did not experience attacks related to terrorist groups. Additionally, there were no active terror organizations operating within the country's borders. However, there remained an increasing regional threat of militancy from groups such as AQIM.

In January 2016, the French government warned Cote d'Ivoire that Islamist militants are planning attacks against targets in the country, prompting the government to increase security measures in urban areas. 

The area of the attack, some 40km east of the capital Abidjan, is popular with foreign tourists. The identity of the perpetrators is currently unknown but the incident follows other attacks on international hotels by Islamist militants, including in Mali and Burkina Faso, in the past year.

The Ivory Coast has little history of Islamist attacks but several suspected jihadists from Mali were arrested in Abidjan in September 2015. 

Contact us on [email protected] for more information.

Source: PGI International and AIG

Photos: RPS Abidjan, Ivory Coast

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