The Ivory Coast authorities confirm the dismantling of a terrorist network last July in Abidjan. According to the French newspaper The Worldwhich reveals this information, six people from Iraq and Syria and linked to the Islamic State terrorist group were arrested in the Ivorian capital. They planned to reach Europe. These suspects had connections as far as Madagascar, where members of the same network were also arrested, with the support of French and American intelligence.
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An Ivorian government source discreetly confirms RFI that the anti-terrorist unit did indeed arrest six Iraqi and Syrian men in the commune of Koumassi in Abidjan on July 28. And this, thanks to information from the American secret services.
According to the daily The Worldat the origin of these revelations, the operation allowed the seizure of false papers and around thirty SIM cards in the suspects’ apartment. They were later questioned by the Ivorian services and their American partners, who suspected them of planning an attack at the Paris Olympic Games.
At the same time as the arrests in Abidjan, a similar operation took place 6,250 km further away, in Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar. The Malagasy services, supported by the French Directorate General for External Security (DGSE), got their hands on two other members of the same network.
Always according to The WorldAmerican and French intelligence had been following these suspects for months, for their links with the Islamic State organization.
Abidjan and Antananarivo are already confronted with jihadism from the Sahel and Mozambique, but this is the first time that the presence of suspected terrorists, directly from the Middle East, has been recognized by the Ivorian authorities.
RFI contacted the French and Malagasy authorities who did not wish to comment.
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