Survivors have not stopped demanding justice after the March 2016 jihadist attack in Grand Bassam, the first of its kind in Cote d’Ivoire.
By Patrice Allegbé
On March 13, 2016, the seaside resort town of Grand-Bassam, located 40 km southeast of Abidjan, was the target of the first jihadist attack recorded on Ivorian soil.
The trial of the attack, which left several dead and wounded in hotels in this touristy site opens Wednesday November 30 at the criminal court of first instance in Abidjan.
Many witnesses such as the artist Rose Ebirim are expected at the opening of the hearings.
“The justice system has called on me to give my testimony, but I don’t think I’ll be able to. Talking about this episode brings back dark memories as I try to get rid of this painful past,” Ms. Ebirim said.
Hunger for justice
If this survivor of the Grand Bassam massacre is reluctant to go to court, it is because she is “still experiencing a psychological shock.”
However, she said she was relieved that the trial was finally opening because “there are several families who want to know the truth.”
A little more than six years after the events, Rose Ebirim has forgotten nothing of that morning which marked the beginning of the expansion of jihadist attacks from the Sahel to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.
“The first shots were heard just behind the Maison des artistes. The attackers were staying in a kind of bungalow called the Zion, a hotel now closed by the authorities,” she recalled.
“There was a passer-by holding his wife’s handbag, who was walking behind him. A few minutes later, we heard a scream, the man had just been shot and was falling to the ground,” she said.
“The shooter was wearing a sky-blue shirt and was holding a machine gun with a belt of ammunition along his body,” she added.
But the idea of a terrorist act did not cross her mind at the time of the attack.
But soon after, she continued, “they shot the man’s wife. And from there they started shooting as they moved towards the beach.” The young artist said she “saw three people with weapons” adding that “the attack started at around 11.30am.”
Attack masterminds nowhere near scene
The operation was claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which attributed it to its Al Murabitoune branch, which had just committed an attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, a few weeks earlier in January in which 30 people were killed.
For this assault, the jihadists also released images of the commando made up of Hamza al-Fulani, Abd ar-Rahman al-Fulani and Abu Adam al-Ansari.
While the alleged sponsor, Mohamed Ould Nouini, a commander within Al Murabitoune was eliminated by the French army in 2018, one of the main organisers, Mimi Ould Baba Ould Cheikh, is still alive but in detention in Mali.
Fawaz Ould Ahmed, known as Ibrahim, was tried last October in Mali and sentenced to death for his involvement in the 2015 attacks on the bar-restaurant La Terrasse and the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
In the absence of getting hold of these big fish, the Ivorian justice system will be satisfied with judging their presumed accomplices or all those involved in the execution of this attack.
According to the note of the public prosecutor, 18 defendants will appear before the criminal court to answer for terrorist acts, murder, attempted murder, receiving of criminals, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition of war and complicity in these acts.
Grand-Bassam, the leading tourist destination in Cote d’Ivoire before the terrorist attack because of its 14 km long coastline, is a symbolic city, bordered by the lagoon and the sea, which hosts the largest European expatriate community after Abidjan.
A citadel of arts and culture with its many festivals that attract thousands of visitors, Grand-Bassam was the first capital of this former French colony in West Africa.
According to the town’s mayor, Jean-Louis Moulot, this act “shows the symbol that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes wanted to attack.”
Three hotels were attacked.
The toll was 33 injured and 19 dead of various nationalities: nine Ivorians, four French, one Lebanese, one German, one Macedonian, one Malian, one Nigerian and one unidentified person.
AP/los/ac/lb/as/APA