The French military base in Abidjan will be handed over to Ivory Coast in January, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara announced on Tuesday evening. This, in accordance with the policy of reorganizing the French military system in Africa.
“We can be proud of our army whose modernization is now effective. It is within this framework that we decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces in Côte d’Ivoire,” declared Mr. Ouattara in his end-of-year speech. “Thus, the camp of the 43rd Bima, the Marine Infantry Battalion of Port-Bouet (a commune in Abidjan), will be handed over to the armed forces of Côte d’Ivoire from this month of January 2025,” he said. he continued. The President specified that the camp would be named after General Ouattara Thomas d’Aquin, the first chief of staff of the Ivorian army.
France has decided to reconfigure its military presence in Africa after being driven out of three Sahelian countries governed by juntas hostile to Paris: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Last month, within a few hours of each other, Senegal and Chad, in turn, announced the departure of French soldiers from their soil and formalized a “reorganization”. On December 26, France handed over a first military base to Chad, in Faya, in the far desert north of the country.
AFP
Canada
