A few days before the opening of the 2024 African Cup of Nations (CAN), Saturday January 13, Youssouf Kouyaté assures that he is “zen”. The director general of the Ivorian police, who is also president of the security commission of the CAN Organizing Committee (Cocan), spoke Tuesday evening on the set of Nouvelle Chaîne Ivoirienne (NCI). He gave some information on the security that will be put in place for the smooth running of the continental competition.
In total, no less than 20,000 members of the defense and security forces will be mobilized throughout the territory. The interior and defense ministries will work hand in hand. The police, gendarmes and the armed forces of Côte d’Ivoire (FACI) will be deployed in the five host cities of the tournament as well as in the municipalities where gatherings are planned.
The Director General of Police listed four major security themes: securing people and property; the traffic challenge after the monster traffic jams observed during the previous matches of the Elephants, the national team; welcoming visitors to Ivorian territory; and the jihadist terrorist risk.
“Good reasons not to worry”
The latter represents the most worrying threat in view of the regional context. The two northern neighbors, Mali and Burkina Faso, have been destabilized by regular attacks on their soil for several years and Abidjan has not forgotten the attack in Grand-Bassam which cost the lives of 19 people in 2016 and injured 33 others. , nor the series of attacks which affected the north of the country, on the border with Burkina Faso, in 2020 and 2021. Calm has since returned thanks to the strengthening of the military presence in the northern part of the country and the identification or dismantling of sleeper cells, made possible by the work of the Anti-Terrorism Operational Intelligence Center created in August 2021. Social projects have also been carried out among young people to keep them away from armed groups.
However, “with the CAN, the country is in the viewfinder, estimates Arthur Banga, political scientist specializing in security issues. When a country exposes itself in this way, it is normal that terrorist or rebel groups who hold a grudge against it are tempted to seize the opportunity to make headlines. » In Angola, during the 2010 CAN, an armed separatist group from the Cabinda enclave attacked the Togolese selection bus, leaving two dead and nine injured.
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