In Ivory Coast, the French military presence is lightening but not disappearing

After being successively expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger between 2022 and 2023, then asked to leave Senegal and Chad at the end of November 2024, the French military are preparing to drastically reduce their presence in Ivory Coast. The French military base at Port-Bouët, in Abidjan, will be handed over to Ivory Coast by the end of January. This withdrawal, long planned by the French and Ivorian authorities, was made official on December 31, 2024 by President Alassane Ouattara during his end-of-year speech.

The reduction in numbers and the transfer of charges between the two armies at the 43 camp^e marine infantry battalion (BIMA) of Port-Bouët mark a new stage in the policy of reorganization of the French military system in Africa. This is not a disavowal, President Ouattara, a faithful ally of Paris on the continent, insisted, but a “concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces in Ivory Coast”which, according to him, consecrates the « modernisation effective » of the Ivorian army.

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