Spanish military personnel complete training of members of the Ivory Coast Armed Forces

• As part of cooperation with West Africa, the team of instructors has developed a course to prevent and respond to terrorist threats

A Mobile Training Team (MTT), made up of three members from the 16th Canary Islands Brigade, has been stationed in Ivory Coast to cooperate in training the defence and security forces of this African country in counter-terrorism and countering improvised explosive devices.

This training period is part of the European Union Security and Defence Initiative for the Gulf of Guinea (EU SDI GoG), which is also being carried out in Ghana, Togo and Benin, with the primary objective of improving the stability of their northern border areas.

This course, taught by Spanish military personnel, has focused on strengthening the capabilities of their Ivorian counterparts and security agents to prevent and respond to any threat affecting the daily lives of the population, especially jihadist terrorism, which is spreading from the countries of the Western Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea.

More specifically, the Spanish team has been responsible for providing specialised theoretical and practical training in procedures and tactics to combat the threat of improvised explosive devices (C-IED) to the Ivorian military.

This European initiative aims to provide national institutions with the technical, training and organisational resources necessary to ensure a safe and stable environment. To this end, the European Union is working in conjunction with the Ivorian authorities, and always in coordination with civil society, with the aim of increasing the resilience of local communities and strengthening trust between the population and its security forces.

In this context, Spain has actively supported the EU SDI GoG since its launch in December 2023. With this new course in Africa, Spain reaffirms its commitment to security and development in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. Furthermore, by supporting Ivory Coast and its neighbouring countries, it joins France, Belgium, Portugal and other European partners in a shared effort, namely to help this geostrategic area, which is key to our own security, in its efforts to ensure stability and peace.

European Union for the security and defence of the Gulf of Guinea

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

To develop this European-African cooperation, the aforementioned countries set out their training needs in different security and defence areas. Subsequently, the EU, through its Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC), responds to these requests with different courses taught by various member countries, including Spain.