Ivory Coast authorities ordered three days of mourning and tightened security at public places and at its borders today as the death toll from the first jihadist attack on its soil climbed to 18.
"Their aim was to frighten us, we will not let ourselves be scared," said Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko after emergency government talks.
Armed with grenades and assault rifles, gunmen Sunday stormed three hotels and sprayed the beach with bullets in the resort of Grand-Bassam, a sleepy town popular with expats just a short 40-kilometre drive from the commercial capital Abidjan.
The attack claimed by Al-Qaeda left 15 people dead, including foreigners, along with three special forces troops. A total of 33 people were injured, 26 of whom are still in hospital.
"Three terrorists were killed," Bakayoko added.
Asked whether more gunmen were involved - some witnesses had reported six attackers - the minister said "we're still looking. We don't suspect more but we're making sure we carry out the widest possible sweep."
Along with a three-day national mourning starting today, he said the West African nation would boost security at "strategic sites and in public places... (such as) schools, embassies, international institutions... And the borders."
In the latest such jihadist assault in West Africa, witnesses described the panic as gunfire rang out across the sand and an assailant shouted "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is greatest".
Condemnation came from around the world with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pledging to help government "efforts to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice."
Former colonial power France blasted "the cowardly attack" while the United States vowed to fight "terrorists who seek to undermine efforts by West African governments."
It was the third such attack in four months in West Africa and a blow to a nation working to lure back foreign tourists to its palm-fringed beaches and rainforests as it recovers from a brutal civil war.
Among the dead were a French and a German citizen as well as two other foreigners. A Ukrainian soldier serving with the UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast was also hurt.
The German victim was named as 51-year-old Henrike Grohs, who headed Abidjan's Goethe Institute, the German language centre's secretary-general said.
