The EU Council decided, on Monday 25 September, to extend the EU Security and Defence Initiative for West African countries in the Gulf of Guinea to Togo and Côte d'Ivoire. Until now, the mission has been based in Benin and Ghana.
On 17 July 2023, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Togo invited the EU to deploy the initiative on its territory. Her Ivorian counterpart did the same on 20 July.
The mission’s strategic objective is to help the West African countries of the Gulf of Guinea in which the mission is established to develop within their security and defence forces the appropriate capabilities to contain and respond to the pressure exerted by armed terrorist groups, according to the EU Council decision of 3 August.
In concrete terms, the initiative should help to improve resilience in vulnerable areas of their northern regions by building the capacity of their security and defence forces, providing operational training prior to the deployment of their security and defence forces and supporting the building of the technical capacity of their security and defence forces. It will also promote the Rule of law and good governance in their security sectors, focusing on the security and defence forces, and help to establish a climate of trust between civil society and the security and defence forces. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)