A government delegation led by the Defence Minister, Dr. Benjamin Kunbour, on Thursday, March 17 met with Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara, to commiserate with him on the terror attack on that country.

The delegation included Mr. Prosper Bani, Minister of Interior, Ambassador Alhaji Baba Kamara, Presidential Advisor on Security, Ambassador Lt. Gen. Peter Augustine Blay (Rtd) Ghana’s Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire and Air Marshal Michael Sampson-Oje, Ghana’s Chief of Defence Staff.

The delegation was in Abidjan to extend condolences of the government and the people of Ghana to the President and people of Cote d’Ivoire following the terrorist attack on Grand-Bassam on Sunday 13^th March 2016 which claimed some 16 lives.

Dr. Kunbour told President Ouattara that President John Dramani Mahama had sent the delegation to show solidarity to them in the wake of the attacks.

“We are also here to extend the condolences of the President and the people of Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire and the bereaved families. You know, if Cote d’Ivoire does not sleep, Ghana can never sleep because we are one and the same people,” he added

The Minister of Defence also indicated that what happened to Cote d’Ivoire is a wake-up call for countries in the West African sub-region to increase their collaborative efforts to counter the terrorist threat in the region.

The delegation also travelled to Grand-Bassam and was received by officials of the town who took them on a guided tour of the beach and the Etoile du Sud Hotel which bore the brunt of Sunday’s barbaric attack.  

Dr Kunbour later laid a wreath on behalf of Government and the People of Ghana in memory of the victims.