Baerbock observes counterterrorism training in Ivory Coast

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock moved on from Senegal to the Ivory Coast on Tuesday on her two-day trip to West Africa. 

Insurgent violence and military takeovers in the region were high on the agenda, as Baerbock visited counterterrorism training in the Ivory Coast aimed at preventing a spillover of terrorism from the central Sahel region. 

Baerbock observed training at an international academy in Jacqueville, roughly 35 kilometers (around 22 miles) outside Abidjan, Ivory Coast's economic hub. The training simulated the prevention of a bomb attack in a rural village. 

Drone surveillance, canine units, bomb disposal experts and forensic police were all involved as well as armed forces.

Germany's specialist federal GSG9 police force — the country's near-military tactical police units created because of the limitations of deploying the German army for policing purposes on domestic soil — regularly assists with training operations at the facility. 

The government in Berlin has also helped fund the training facility, contributing around €2.5 million (roughly $2.7 million). Specialists from France and the US are also involved.

Rare points of contact in West Africa after string of coups

The political backdrop to this security cooperation was the focus of Baerbock's meeting with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara.

Senegal and Ivory Coast are two of only a handful of remaining partners in the region for Western governments after a series of coups in the Sahel region to the east of Ivory Coast. 

The militaries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — two of which share borders with the Ivory Coast — have all seized power in recent years, all claiming they were doing so because of government failures to combat Islamist terrorism.

All three sent French and other international troops home and the fighting has if anything intensified since the militaries took power. 

The trio was suspended from the regional ECOWAS group and later quit it themselves. They have since set up their own "defensive alliance," as they call it, saying they would stand together in the case of foreign intervention. 

Baerbock on Tuesday appealed to the coup leaders to refrain from violence, and in the longer term to facilitate "that the countries can again return to the regional ECOWAS collective." 

"That's the reason for the appeal to the relevant putschists, to the regimes, that the path for people should be ... the one built on peace and not on the military or violence," she said. 

Baerbock said "everything" should be done to try to ensure "that no further democracies in the region are destabilized." 

"For us security in the Sahel is central," she said, adding that she and Ouattara had "extensively" discussed "how we can contrutibute to security here in the region."

Germany is in the process of giving up an air transport base operated by the Bundeswehr in Niger by the end of August. 

Baerbock said that Germany "could not carry on as before" with security assistance in Niger, as there was no longer "reliability" from the local government. 

Germany pledges funds for Sahel education at Berlin event, as 'antidote' to terrorist recruitment

Meanwhile, German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, chair of the largest donor platform for the region, the Sahel Alliance, on Tuesday announced a new education initiative hoping to help more than 2 million boys and girls. 

She cited estimates that some 40% of children in the region are no longer able to attend schools because of the security risks. 

"Education is one of the most effective antidotes to the recruitment attempts of terrorist groups, because education gives young people prospects," Schulze said at the end of the Sahel Alliance meeting in Berlin.

She acknowledged that it was no longer possible to coordinate with national governments in the region on such initiatives as before. 

"We are relying much more heavily on local authorities and non-government organizations," Schulze said. "Nevertheless, we also want to remain in dialogue with the coup states." 

This article incorrectly stated that Abidjan was the capital of the Ivory Coast. The political capital is Yamoussoukro whereas Abidjan is country's economic center and largest city. We have corrected the error.

msh/lo (AFP, dpa)