The French Ministry of Defense is establishing a new advanced Counter-Terrorism Academy (AILCT) in Jacqueville, near Abidjan in Cote d’Ivoire, this was revealed during a ceremony to mark the official start of construction. The event which occurred on 18 October was attended by the Ivorian Minister of Defence Hamed Bakayoko and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian.
The new Counter-Terrorism Academy (AILCT) will be used to train the Ivorian Special Forces in Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency (CT-COIN) Operations, High-value target kill/capture (HVTK/C), hostage rescue operations etc. The facility covers an area of 1,171 hectares and will accommodate a command post, several classrooms, accommodation buildings, a tactical training area, a mock-up village for close quarter combat training, and an area for nautical training. The total cost of the project is expected to exceed XOF13 billion (USD22.4 million).
The French Military is currently undertaking counter-insurgency operations in the African Sahel region under Operation Barkhane, in July 2018, a French soldier was killed and another seriously injured when an Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter belonging to the French Forces in Côte d’Ivoire (FFCI), which have a large base near Abidjan airport crashed.