The Ivorian army has denied a terrorist attack that is said to have repulsed at the border with Ghana, relayed on social networks.
“The General Staff of the Armed Forces notes with regret the propagation on social networks of information relating to a terrorist attack that is supposed to have been repelled at the Ivorian-Ghanaian border,” said a statement from the Armed Forces Information and Press Office (BIPA).
“This information, taken up by some professional media, is not based on any tangible and proven fact in the alleged region and period,” said the Ivorian General Staff, adding that “terrorists were never pushed back to this border last weekend because they never reported there.”
The Ivorian army describes this information as a “rumor,” calling on the instigators to be responsible, because terrorism is a major security threat for any entity, and its evocation must be surrounded by caution.
“In any case, the General Staff of the Armed Forces has always informed the population of terrorist alerts and attacks reported or occurring throughout the national territory, a mission to which BIPA, its communication service has never shirked,” the document said.
Côte d’Ivoire is in the sights of jihadist groups. In March 2016, three attackers killed 19 people on the popular beach of Grand-Bassam, near Abidjan. The terrorist attack, claimed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi), was the first of its kind on Ivorian territory.
In June 2021, several soldiers lost their lives in jihadist attacks in the north of the country, which is at risk of attack. A large security force was deployed in this part of the country to prevent the risk of attacks.
AP/cgd/fss/abj/APA