In Gabon, it was a symbolic ceremony of historic significance on Tuesday, July 9, in Libreville. The military base of the French army is no longer exclusively a military site of the French army. The de Gaulle camp, well known to the Gabonese, will now be a mixed site where French soldiers and their Gabonese colleagues will coexist. The camp becomes an academy to train African armies in several areas.
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This Tuesday, July 9, Gabonese and French officers inaugurated a military administration school, before the environmental academy which will be installed there in a few months.
On the Place d’honneur of the de Gaulle camp, the sign bearing the inscription ” 6th Marine Infantry Battalion ” has just been changed. It now reads “academy”. Generals Martin Ossima Ndong from Gabon and Régis Colcombet from France received military honors from the armies of both countries to symbolize this change.
“ Renewal of military cooperation »
For General Ossima Ndong, Secretary General of the Gabonese Ministry of Defense, it is a new beginning. It is a renewal in the framework of military cooperation between our two states to change the de Gaulle camp into a center of excellence for training. We are delighted with this development. “, he believes.
After receiving military honors, the two generals unveiled the plaque of the Libreville Defense Forces Administration School (EAFDL), one of the first establishments to occupy part of this vast complex, a former French base.
General Régis Colcombet welcomes an evolution in Franco-Gabonese military cooperation. In a world that is complex, we have to work together. And so, France does not leave, does not stay but really transforms itself in its work here in Gabon “, he notes.
Due to this reorientation, the number of French soldiers in Gabon will drop from 350 to 200 this year, and the combat force will be reduced.
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