Ivory Coast says French troops to leave country after decades

Ivory Coast is the latest West African nation to expel troops of former colonial power after Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Ivory Coast has announced that French troops will leave the country this month after a decades-long military presence, becoming the latest African nation to downscale military ties with its former coloniser.

In an end-of-year address to the nation on Tuesday, President Alassane Ouattara said the 43rd BIMA marine infantry battalion at Port-Bouet in Abidjan – where French troops were stationed – “will be handed over” to Ivory Coast’s armed forces as of January 2025.

“We can be proud of our army, whose modernisation is now effective. It is in this context that we have decided on the concerted and organised withdrawal of French forces” from Ivory Coast, Ouattara said.

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

Ivory Coast is the latest West African nation to expel French troops after Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. In November, within hours of each other, Senegal and Chad also announced the departure of French soldiers from their soil.

On December 26, France returned its first military base to Chad, the last Sahel nation to host French troops.

Ivory Coast remains an important ally of France. The downscaling of military ties comes as France tries to revive its waning political and military influence on the African continent by devising a new military strategy that would sharply reduce its permanent troop presence across the continent.

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

Analysts have described the developments as part of the wider structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris amid growing local sentiments against France, especially in coup-hit countries.

After expelling the French troops, military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have moved closer to Russia.