People being escorted away from the beach
The 2016 Grand-Bassam shootings occurred in the afternoon of 13 March 2016 when three armed assailants opened fire on beachgoers at a beach resort in Grand-Bassam, Cote d'Ivoire. 18 people were killed in the attack, and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility.
Prelude[]
al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had a history of targeting foreigners in West Africa, with Islamist terrorists carrying out terrorist attacks in North Africa and Mali frequently. In November 2015, the 2015 Bamako hotel attack left 20 civilians dead and 7 soldiers wounded, and on 15 January 2016 the 2016 Ouagadougou attacks left 30 civilians dead and over 56 civilians wounded. Burkina Faso, the location of Ouagadougou, did not have a prior history of Islamist attacks, and it was unusual for al-Qaeda to launch attacks outside of the Maghreb region in Africa.
Attack[]
An Ivorian Army soldier comforting a wounded boy
On 13 March 2016, three armed men wearing casual clothing with grenade belts, body armor, and balaclavas and equipped with AK-47s opened fire on beachgoers at the Grand-Bassam beach resort of Cote d'Ivoire, near the Etoile du Sud hotel, where numerous foreigners were staying at the time. One witness said that the gunshots had come from a boat, and another witness said that there were seven dead on the beach at the hands of four attackers. The attackers killed five Europeans and ten Ivorians, and they moved towards the La Paillote Hotel, where they had a firefight with Ivorian police and responding French Army soldiers. 3 Ivorian special forces soldiers and the three attackers were killed in the firefight. Shortly after, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attack via their al-Andalus media wing; al-Mourabitoun, another al-Qaeda-linked group, also claimed responsibility for the attack in collaboration with AQIM. The attackers were later identified as Hamza al-Fulani, Abu Adam al-Ancari, and Abderrahmane al-Fulani.