An international academy to fight terrorism has been opened near the Ivorian city of Abidjan.
The International Counterterrorism Academy, known for its French initialism AILCT, is funded by France and the European Union among others and is aimed at helping the region fight rising Islamist militancy.
It was inaugurated in the presence of Ivory Coast’s prime minister, defence minister and France’s foreign minister.
Its inauguration comes as France has announced that it is ending Operation Barkhane in the Sahel, a semi-arid stretch of land just south of the Sahara Desert which includes Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania.