As the country joins others in reducing military relations with its former colonial power, the president of Ivory Coast confirms that French forces will depart by 2025.
Ivory Coast, the most recent African republic to reduce military links with its former colonial power, said on Tuesday that French troops will be leaving the country after decades of military involvemnet.
The disengagement will start in January 2025, according to Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara. Up to 600 French soldiers have served in Ivory Coast.
He declared, “We have decided on the concerted and organized withdrawal of French forces in Ivory Coast”, and that Ivorian troops would take over the French army’s infantry battalion in Port Bouet.
Demands for more autonomy and discontent with France’s involvement in regional security and administration have fueled anti-French sentiment in sections of West Africa, which is reflected in the withdrawals.
Other leaders in West Africa, where French Troops are being asked to withdraw, have made similar announcements to Ouattara’s.
The calls for French troops to withdraw from Africa have been characterized by analysts as a component of the broader structural shift in the region’s relationship with Paris.
French withdrawal
Similar failures have recently befallen France in a number of West African nations, such as Chad, Niger, and Burkina Faso, where French troops who had been stationed there for many years were expelled.
A number of West African countries, including Burkina Faso, Niger, and coup-torn Mali, have recently requested that the French withdraw. These include, most recently, Senegal and Chad, which are regarded as France’s most dependable and devoted African allies.
The reduction in military connections coincides with France’s pursuit of a new military strategy that would drastically cut its long-term soldier presence in Africa in an attempt to regain its declining political and military clout on the continent.
Since the end of its colonial authority, France has been expelled from more than 70% of the African nations where it maintained a military presence.
There are still barely 1,500 French forces in Djibouti and 350 in Gabon.
In light of growing local anti-French sentiment, particularly in coup-hit nations, analysts have characterized the developments as part of a larger structural shift in the region’s connection with Paris.
