ELEVEN people were sentenced to life in prison in Ivory Coast on Wednesday for an Islamist terror attack that killed 19 people and injured dozens more on a tourist beach nearly seven years ago.

In March 2016, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb militants opened fire on a packed toursit beach in the Grand-Bassam resort, the first extremist attack of its kind in Ivory Coast and one of the bloodiest in the region.

Eighteen defendants have been on trial since November. But only four of the accused were physically present, each of whom was sentenced to life in prison. 

Seven others were found innocent, while families of the victims were awarded varying compensation of up to £70,000.

Patrick Colin, a manager of one of the beach front hotels where the attacks took place, said: “It’s good, but unfortunately everything is not perfect because the mastermind was not on the stand. It will be over for the victims when he is caught.”

The whereabouts of Kounta Dallah, a Mali national and the alleged mastermind of the attack, are still unknown.