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Ivory Coast marks 10 years since deadly Grand-Bassam beach attacks

Security forces gathering around the scene were gunmen attacked people in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast, March 13, 2016.   -  
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Christin Roby/AP

Ivory Coast

It's been ten years since one of the biggest terror attacks happened in the Ivory Coast.

On March 13, 2016, three gunmen moved along the beach and stormed three adjacent hotels, sometimes shooting people in the sand.

The victims included a Nigerian, four French citizens, a German, a Macedonian and a Lebanese national, as well as Ivorians.

The jihadists claimed the attack was in retaliation for anti-terror operations in the Sahel region led by France and its allies.

Fifteen people have been arrested in connection with the first jihadist attack in the Ivory Coast that was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in retaliation for anti-terror operations in the Sahel region led by France and its allies.

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.