GRAND-BASSAM, Ivory Coast—Survivors of the first attack by Islamic extremists in Ivory Coast described scenes of confusion and fear as the jihadists gunned down defenseless civilians at a beachfront resort town. The attack left 16 dead.
Those who make a living off tourism believed the attack on three hotels Sunday would deal it a huge blow.
“Here, we work every day so foreigners (can) come here to relax ... With all that has happened, I don’t think that the clients are going to come back now,” said Francois Tanon, who rents beach chairs to tourists.
Frenchman Charles-Philippe d‘Orleans said he was at the beach with a friend when he heard the first shot, and thought it was a firecracker; then he heard another and louder one. A security guard told beachgoers not to worry, that some youths had tried to enter the paid-access beach and that another guard had fired his weapon into the air, d’Orleans told French radio RTL.
But then more shooting broke out and d‘Orleans and others hid behind a wall with gunmen “to the right, to the left, toward the road and toward the beach,” d’Orleans told the radio interviewer. He said that when the gunfire receded he and his friend sped away in a car.
“Afterward we said ‘Wow, we actually escaped something big,” he said.
Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara is scheduled to preside over an emergency cabinet meeting Monday to respond to the attack by al-Qaida extremists.
