Report has it that Ivory Coast has arrested the leader of an armed group that carried out a deadly attack on a military post near the border with Burkina Faso last week.
“The commander of the team who led the action was taken yesterday,” Minister of Defence Hamed Bakayoko said on Monday at a military camp in the main city of Abidjan.
Further in his address he said we will go further as the investigation progresses. We will know who he was in contact with, who is behind it,” said Bakayoko without identifying the individual or giving further details about the capture.
His comments came during a speech honouring the victims of the pre-dawn June 11 attack, when at least 10 soldiers were killed and six others wounded after dozens of fighters assaulted the post at Kafolo, on the northeastern border with Burkina Faso.
Bakayoko said the authorities had carried out a “very large (number) of arrests of people directly involved” in the attack, adding that these arrests came thanks to photos retrieved from mobile phones.
The assault was the deadliest carried out in the country since gunmen from al-Qaeda’s North African branch stormed the beach resort of Grand Bassam in March 2016, killing at least 19 people.
On June 18, the Ivorian army said it had carried out a sweep in the Kafolo area and in the neighbouring Comoe National Park.
Troops picked up 27 people, destroyed logistical materiel and seized communications equipment, it said.
Ivory Coast shares a 550km (340 miles) border with Burkina Faso, one of the countries that have been severely affected by a worsening security situation in the Sahel. Africa-News reports.