Africa News

Twenty Dead After Ivory Coast Hotel Shooting

Several people are dead after a gun attack in the Ivory Coast resort town of Grand-Bassam, 40 km east of the commercial hub of Abidjan.

At least 20 people are dead, including six assailants, after heavily-armed gunmen opened fire in the Ivory Coast resort town of Grand-Bassam 40 km (25 miles) east of the commercial hub of Abidjan on Sunday.

A government statement said gunmen attacked two hotels, CNN reports.

A government minister later said that six gunmen were “neutralised” by police forces, AFP reports.

The attackers were “heavily armed and wearing balaclavas, fired at guests at the L’Etoile du Sud, a large hotel which was full of expats in the current heatwave,” one witness told AFP.

Photographs from the scene show gun magazines and grenades in the area.

Early reports suggested that the United States Ambassador to Ivory Coast my have been the intended target. Daniel Finnan, a journalist with French media group Radio France Internationale, said on Twitter that the US embassy confirmed to him that the ambassador was not in the country, but a US delegation was in Bassam. The embassy could not confirm that Americans were harmed or “intended to be harmed”.

Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb has claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on their Al Andalus Telegram channel.

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