Ivory Coast announces arrest of armed group leader behind border post attack

Ivory Coast says it has arrested the leader of an armed group that last week carried out a deadly attack on a military post near the border with Burkina Faso.

"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.

"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.

[Al Jazeera]