Spanish military personnel train the Ivory Coast Armed Forces in combating improvised explosive devices

• The aim is to strengthen the capabilities of the Defence and Security Forces so that they can prevent and neutralise threats that generate instability and violence.

Spanish military personnel from a Mobile Training Team (MTT), made up of the Army's 16th Canary Islands Brigade, are providing members of the Ivory Coast Armed Forces with specialised training to combat the threat of improvised explosive devices.

The aim is to strengthen the capabilities of the country's Defence and Security Forces, which are deployed in northern towns, so that they can independently prevent and neutralise any threat that could cause instability and violence in this region of the Western Sahel.

More specifically, this course includes theoretical and hands-on sessions on how to locate, identify and, if it possible, deactivate or neutralise explosive devices, which pose a huge risk to the local population.

This cooperation activity is being carried out within the framework of the European Union (EU) Security and Defence Initiative in support of the West African countries of the Gulf of Guinea (EU SDI GoG).

This European initiative, launched in December 2023, aims to support and strengthen national institutions in the Gulf of Guinea so that they have the technical, training and organisational resources necessary to ensure a secure and stable environment within their countries and throughout the region.

In this effort, the European Union acts as a strategic partner, working alongside the Ivorian authorities and in coordination with civil society, with the aim of increasing the resilience of local communities and strengthening trust between the population and their security forces, which must be the main guarantors of citizen protection.

Spain, within the framework of the European Union's Security and Defence Initiative, demonstrates its commitment to this geostrategic area, which is key to our own security, by supporting the countries of West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea in their efforts to ensure stability and peace.

European Union commitment to security and defence cooperation with the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.

Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) Decision 2023/1599 established the EU SDI GoG, whose main objective is to increase the training of the security and defence forces of Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin so that they are capable, autonomously, of improving the stability and resilience of their northern border areas, especially in the face of the threat of jihadist terrorism.

The aforementioned countries request training in different subjects from the European Union. Subsequently, the EU, through its External Action Service (EEAS) and the latter, in turn, through its Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC), transfers this to the different countries.

The Gulf of Guinea is an area of priority interest for the European Union, and especially for Spain, which shares an agenda with other European countries such as France, Belgium and Portugal. Through its participation in this initiative, Spain is demonstrating its commitment to the stability, security and development of this African region.