Sawt Falasteen - 'Never forget': Ivory Coast commemorates 2016 jihadist attack on resort

Three attackers wielding assault rifles stormed the beach at Grand-Bassam, popular with foreigners and 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of the main city of Abidjan, on March 13, 2016 before attacking restaurants.

The 45-minute bloodbath ended when Ivorian security forces shot the attackers dead.

The assault was the first jihadist attack in Ivory Coast, one of west Africa's economic powerhouses. The country has largely escaped the jihadist violence that regularly hits neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali.

Al-Qaeda's North African affiliate, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed responsibility for the attack, whose victims comprised nine Ivorians, four French citizens, a Lebanese, a German, a Macedonian, a Malian, a Nigerian and one person who could not be identified.

"This attack was not only against people," Deputy Prime Minister Tene Birahima Ouattara said at the official ceremony.

"It was against what defines the Ivorian nation: our cultural diversity, our history open to the world, our legendary hospitality and our joy of living," he added, in front of a memorial honouring the 19 dead.

The attack was in response to anti-jihadist operations in the Sahel by France and its allies. It targeted Ivory Coast for having handed over AQIM operatives to Mali.

Ten men have since been jailed for life for their role in the attack, including six in absentia.

N.Shalabi--SF-PST