Ivory Coast says French forces will leave the country after decades | Military news

Ivory Coast is the latest country in West Africa to expel the forces of the former colonial power, after Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Ivory Coast announced that French forces will leave the country this month after a decades-long military presence, becoming the latest African country to reduce its military ties with its former colonizer.

In an end-of-year address to the nation on Tuesday, President Alassane Ouattara said the 43rd BIMA Marine Battalion at Port Boué in Abidjan – where French forces are based – will “be handed over” to the Armed Forces of Ivory Coast from January 2025.

“We can be proud of our army, whose modernization is now effective. “In this context, we have decided on the coordinated and orderly withdrawal of French forces” from Ivory Coast, Ouattara said.

According to reports, France, whose colonial rule in West Africa ended in the 1960s, has approximately 1,000 soldiers in Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast is the latest West African country to subsequently expel French forces financial, Burkina Faso and Niger. In November, within hours of each other, Senegal and Chad He also announced the departure of French soldiers from their lands.

On December 26, France returned for the first time Military base in ChadIt is the last country in the Sahel region to host French forces.

Ivory Coast remains an important ally of France. The downsizing of military ties comes at a time when France is trying to revive its dwindling political and military influence on the African continent by developing a new military strategy that would sharply reduce the presence of its permanent forces across the continent.

France has now been expelled from more than 70 percent of the African countries where it has had a troop presence since the end of its colonial rule. The French remain in Djibouti with only 1,500 soldiers, and in Gabon with 350 soldiers.

Analysts described the developments as part of a broader structural shift in the region’s dealings with Paris amid growing domestic sentiment against France, especially in countries hit by coups.

After the expulsion of French forces, military leaders in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso approached Russia.