The death toll in an attack by Islamist militants on a beach resort in Ivory Coast rose to 15 civilians and three members of the country’s special forces killed and 33 people wounded, Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said.

Three Islamist militants who stormed the resort in the town of Grand Bassam east of the commercial capital Abidjan were also killed, he said at the end of a cabinet meeting.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has joined the condemnation of Sunday’s terrorist attack on the resort.

This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the president.

It stated that the President in a telephone call to President Alassane Ouattara after the attack, conveyed the sympathy of the Federal Government and people of Nigeria to the people of Cote D’Ivoire as they mourned their compatriots and foreign visitors who lost their lives in the attack.

According to the statement, Buhari assures his Ivorian counterpart of Nigeria’s full solidarity and support as his country grapples with the consequences of the heinous attack and strives to overcome the new security challenge posed by the terrorist incursion.

“Buhari restated his call for greater international cooperation against terrorists and their sponsors as he remarked that “terrorism now transcends all national boundaries.

“They have attacked a hotel in Mali, leaving 21 people dead. They killed over 130 people in attacks on Paris and they murdered 28 persons in Burkina Faso.

“Terrorism does not respect territorial boundaries again.

“That is why the world has to come together, present a common front and deal with these merchants of evil.’’

Ouattara, according to the statement, thanked Buhari for Nigeria’s sympathy and solidarity.