The move in Ivory Coast comes just a week after Paris agreed to withdraw troops from neighboring Senegal by the end of the year
France has handed over its only army base in Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) to the West African nation’s authorities, weeks after Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara announced the withdrawal of French troops amid a regional trend of former colonies severing defense ties with Paris.
The Port-Bouet military camp, near the capital, Abidjan, had previously hosted the 43rd French Marine Infantry Battalion (43e BIMa). On Thursday, it was returned to the Ivorian Army at a ceremony attended by French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu and his Ivorian counterpart, Tene Birahima Ouattara.
The French mission in the African country announced the move in a post on X, calling it a “historic moment for Franco-Ivorian cooperation.”
“It is a very strong symbolic sequence with the retrocession of this camp to the Ivorian armies. This is being done in exemplary conditions, in full coherence and in full maturity of our relationship,” AFP also quoted Colonel Damien Mireval, the French defense attaché in Abidjan, as saying.
The camp will reportedly be renamed after Thomas Aquinas Ouattara, the first chief of staff of the Ivorian Army.
President Ouattara first announced the withdrawal of approximately 600 French soldiers from his country during his year-end address in December, claiming that the decision is intended to modernize the national armed forces.
Ivorian Defense Minister Birahima Ouattara told French broadcaster RFI in an interview published on Tuesday that the “military cooperation continues with France,” focused on intelligence and training support from the French government.
The transfer of the military installation to Ivory Coast comes just days after Paris agreed to the complete hand-over of its bases in Senegal to the national army by the end of 2025. Senegal’s leader stated in November that he intends to completely remove the former colonial power’s military presence.
Late last month, the French Army handed over its remaining base in Chad, which had been France’s last foothold in the troubled Sahel region after Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger cut ties with Paris over alleged failure to combat jihadist insurgents. In November, the Chadian government ended military cooperation with its former colonial ruler, declaring the pact redundant.
