German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock continues her two-day visit to West Africa in Ivory Coast.
The Green politician was welcomed at Abidjan airport on Tuesday by Foreign Minister Léon Kacou Adom after his trip from Senegal. A meeting with President Alassane Ouattara was scheduled for later.
After meeting Adom, Baerbock will learn about the training of civilian and military security forces at an international counterterrorism academy about 35 kilometers outside Abidjan, where she will witness a simulated liberation of a Sahel village from terrorists.
Germany is contributing €2.5 million to finance the training centre’s infrastructure and has also provided money for a jetty.
The academy trains specialists from the civil, police and military sectors in crisis management and counter-terrorism, with an emphasis on tactics and hostage rescue. The special GSG9 unit of the German Federal Police also trains there regularly.
Ivory Coast is located on the Gulf of Guinea and with approximately 30 million inhabitants is the economic heavyweight of French-speaking West Africa. It is also the largest cocoa producer in the world.
Like its Sahel neighbours Ghana, Benin and Togo, the country is threatened by spillover Islamist terror from Mali and Burkina Faso, where militant groups are spreading, especially in the border regions.
