Between 2002 and 2011 Cote D’Ivoire suffered two civil wars and endured a decade as a divided nation. Hundreds of people died. The first war lasted until 2007, the second was a short-lived, post-election conflict that led to the arrest of former President Laurent Gbagbo in April 2011.
Cote D’Ivoire's decade as a divided nation led to unsecured and unsafe storage of weapons and ammunition, presenting a risk to the people of the Ivory Coast. Whilst considerable progress has been made in securing and destroying obsolete weapons and stockpiles of landmines, ammunition and aircraft bombs, small-scale theft and the cross-border proliferation of weapons and ammunition is still a concern.
OUR WORK
Weapons and ammunition management
In Cote D’Ivoire from 2011-2016, HALO reformed or constructed 188 armouries and ammunition stores managed by the police, military, customs agency and gendarmerie and destroyed 12,000 weapons and 184 metric tons of ammunition, from grenades to aircraft bombs and missiles, were collected and destroyed.
This project helped develop responsible and professional security force capacity and ensure accountability of arms and ammunition - helping to support a democratic Cote D’Ivoire, despite increasing conflict and political instability across West Africa.
Our work in Cote D’Ivoire prevents dangerous weapons from being seized by terror groups, including groups linked to ISIS and al-Qaeda, who have a growing and presence in the region as they push south from the Sahel.
HALO is also working with the State Department Counterterrorism Bureau on a counter-IED training project in Cote d’Ivoire, which has seen attacks on its borders with Mali and Burkina Faso. This project will train Ivorian national police to disrupt and disarm IEDs in the field used by terrorist groups along the border.
Diverted arms also aid in the trafficking of migrants, narcotics and other illicit goods, across West Africa and the Sahel. Securing weapons prevent them from being trafficked, or used to facilitate trafficking.