An international academy to fight terrorism has been opened near the Ivorian city of Abidjan.
The International Counterterrorism Academy, known by its French initialism AILCT, is funded by France and the European Union among others, and is aimed at helping the region fight rising Islamist militancy.
It was inaugurated in the presence of Ivory Coast’s prime minister, defence minister and France’s foreign minister.
Located in a huge coconut grove, 80km (about 50 miles) from Abidjan, it has been specially designed for military training.
Already 15bn CFA francs ($27m, £20m) have been invested in the project – and another 25bn CFA francs will be needed to make it 100% operational within the next two years.
It has three objectives:
- To train the special forces of the armies in the region
- To train officials, such as magistrates, customs officers and accountants, in the fight against terrorism. The AILCT wants to create networks of professionals who know each other and work together across borders
- To create a strategic study centre.
There will also be a hotel to accommodate the trainees.
Its inauguration comes as France has announced that it is ending Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, a semi-arid stretch of land just south of the Sahara Desert which includes Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.
This began seven years ago and involved the deployment of up to 5,000 French soldiers who have been fighting militant Islamists across five states.
