Ivory Coast is losing U.S. aid as Al Qaeda and other extremist groups are approaching

In Kimbirila-Nord, Ivory Coast, Aminata Doumbia sits on farmland that was leased with help from USAID but has not yet been cultivated because the funding has ceased. The Trump administration’s sweeping foreign aid cuts mean that support is now gone, even as violence in Mali and other countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara has reached record levels and sent tens of thousands of refugees streaming into northern Ivory Coast. “Ivory Coast is one of the few countries that still resist the terrorist threat in the Sahel,” said a U.N. official working in the country who was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly. In 2024, the U.S. Africa Command provided over $65 million to projects in Ivory Coast, most of which “focused on counter-terrorism and border security” in the northern part of the country, according to the group’s website. The Pentagon said in a statement that it was “not aware of any budget cuts that have undermined counter-terrorism training or partnership programs in Africa.” Ivory Coast has the second-highest GDP per capita in West Africa, but according to the U.N. it remains one of the world’s least developed countries.