Eleven people have been sentenced to life in prison in Ivory Coast after being convicted of abetting an attack that killed 19 people and injured dozens on a tourist beach nearly seven years ago.
Judge Charles Bini handed down the sentences on Wednesday in Abidjan, the country’s commercial hub, in the March 13, 2016, assault, which was the first such attack in Ivory Coast.
In an operation similar to an attack the previous year in Tunisia, three men wielding assault rifles stormed the beach at Grand-Bassam, a resort 40km (25 miles) east of Abidjan that’s popular with Europeans, and then attacked hotels and restaurants.
Of the 19 people killed, nine were Ivorians and four were French citizens. A Lebanese national, a German, a Macedonian, a Malian and a Nigerian also died, and there was one victim who could not be identified. At least 33 people were wounded.
Al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility the same day for the attack.
It said the attack was in response to military operations in the Sahel by France and its allies and said it targeted Ivory Coast for having handed over its fighters to Mali.
Several dozen people were arrested, including three suspected accomplices of the attackers who were detained in Mali.
Eighteen people were charged in Ivory Coast with acts of “terrorism”, murder, attempted murder, criminal concealment, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, “and complicity in these deeds”, Public Prosecutor Richard Adou said.
“We have to discourage the followers of these terrorist acts,” he said, summing up his case before Wednesday’s verdict. “We have been confronted with horror and barbarity.”
