Senegalese authorities arrested two suspected foreign jihadists in Dakar including one who had been in contact with Ivory Coast hotel attack mastermind conducted a year ago.
According to Senegal’s Police spokesman Henry Cisse, an operation in Dakar on Thursday 23/2/2017 had led to the arrest of Ould Sidy Mohamed Dina, a Malian, as he was trying to leave his home. He had been in Senegal for a month.
Another suspected jihadist from Mauritania was also arrested trying to board a bus to Gambia. The two suspects have not yet been charged.
At least 15 civilians and members of the Special Forces were killed in the Ivory Coast’s Grand Bassam hotel.
33 others were injured at this hotel that is a popular weekend retreat hub frequented with Ivorians and westerners.
The attack was one of several in the region viewed as targeting France and its allies, including Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, after Paris intervened militarily in Mali in 2013 to drive out al Qaeda-linked militants who had seized the desert north a year earlier.
Senegal has thus far been spared jihadi attacks like those that frequently plague its eastern neighbor Mali, but authorities are on high alert.
