{"id":20947,"date":"2025-12-12T05:38:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/ivory-coast-pushes-for-us-spy-planes-to-tackle-al-qaeda-linked-jihadists-in-sahel\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:07","slug":"ivory-coast-pushes-for-us-spy-planes-to-tackle-al-qaeda-linked-jihadists-in-sahel","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/ivory-coast-pushes-for-us-spy-planes-to-tackle-al-qaeda-linked-jihadists-in-sahel\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivory Coast pushes for US spy planes to tackle al Qaeda-linked jihadists in Sahel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is according to two senior Ivorian security officials who told <em>Reuters<\/em> they expected a decision from Washington next year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One of the Ivorian sources, a senior counterterrorism official, said Abidjan and Washington agreed on regional security needs, and timing was the only issue that remained to be determined.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The White House did not respond to a request for comment, while the Pentagon said it wasn\u2019t currently planning operations in the Ivory Coast. The State Department declined to comment, but said: &#8220;We will actively continue to pursue our counterterrorism objectives where there is a nexus to US interests.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Ivorian Defence Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.<br \/>\nWashington lost access to its main base in West Africa last year, when Niger turned to Russia for security assistance and kicked US forces out of a $100 million drone base.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The base had provided crucial intelligence on groups allied with al Qaeda and Islamic State across the Sahel, where 3 885 deaths last year were attributed to terrorism, making up half the global total, according to the Global Terrorism Index.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20948,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-20947","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Ivory Coast wants the Trump administration to station United States (US) spy planes in the country\u2019s north to carry out cross-border operations targeting Al Qaeda-allied jihadists wreaking havoc across the Sahel.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Ivory Coast wants the Trump administration to station United States (US) spy planes in the country\u2019s north to carry out cross-border operations targeting Al Qaeda-allied jihadists wreaking havoc across the Sahel.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24797,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20947\/revisions\/24797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=20947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}