The chief of the French Army General Staff supports “the autonomization of the armies of West Africa”
The Chief of the French Army General Staff, Thierry Burkhard, has made his first official visit to the Ivory Coast, where he has visited an open anti-terrorist academy in the north of the country and has extolled the need to maintain close cooperation to combat jihadism .
Burkhard has stated through his account on the social network Twitter after his visit to the International Academy for the Fight against Terrorism (AILCT) in Jacqueville that it is “an innovative project based on a solid Franco-Ivorian partnership”.
Thus, he has defended that this project “puts international cooperation at the center of the fight against terrorism”, while stressing that it is “an exemplary project for the autonomy of the armies of West Africa”.
He also met with his Ivorian counterpart, Lassina Doumbia, and with the African country’s Defense Minister, Téné Birahima Ouattara, after which he highlighted a “convergence in points of view on the security situation in the subregion and in the modalities of strengthening our military cooperation’.
For his part, the director of the AILCT, Kouamé Allah, thanked Paris for its support in the fight against terrorism and highlighted the joint work to launch the academy, as reported by the Ivorian newspaper ‘ Fraternite Matin’.
Doumbia acknowledged in November 2021 that the increase in insecurity in the north of the country after the latest attacks by jihadist groups is a cause for “concern”, although he assured that the situation is under control.
Ivory Coast has been the scene of several attacks in recent months, most of them near the border with Burkina Faso, in the north of the country, which has led both countries to launch operations in the area.
Jihadist groups, mainly the affiliates of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Sahel, have multiplied their actions in recent years in Mali, Burkina Faso and western Niger, and the governments of the region fear that they may continue to spread their activity towards the coastal countries of West Africa.
Ivory Coast was already the scene of a terrorist attack in March 2016, in the coastal city of Grand Bassam in which at least 16 people died. The attack was claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
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