The Ivorian air force has never had a purpose-built main base. Its headquarters and transports share the runway of Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport, which the ASECNA aeronautical information publication describes simply as a civil aerodrome operated by AERIA, with a single runway, 03/21, 3,000 m long and 45 m wide, six metres above sea level. Military Africa’s reports of the 2018 and 2020 deliveries locate the Groupe Aérien de Transport et de Liaison at “Abidjan-Port Bouët”, and defenceWeb’s 2026 profile calls the site Abidjan Air Base.

For most of the service’s life the more visible military presence at Port-Bouët was French. Wikipedia dates the 43rd Marine Infantry Battalion’s camp beside the airport to 1979. During Opération Licorne it was the operation’s rear base; from March 2008, Wikipedia says, its logistics functions were merged into a joint services support base, the BSVIA, stationed at Port-Bouët. Zone Militaire noted in January 2025 what made the site valuable to Paris: direct access to the airport and to the deep-water port.

On 6 November 2004 Ivorian Su-25s struck the French position at Bouaké, killing nine French soldiers and an American civilian. The French answer reached Abidjan within the hour. French Wikipedia’s account of the bombing says fighting broke out between French and Ivorian troops for control of Abidjan airport about an hour after the attack, because the airport was essential to France. English Wikipedia’s article on the airport says it was looted and damaged, retaken by French troops, and returned to the Ivorian government in the second half of November.

Where the Ivorian aircraft were destroyed is told differently. English Wikipedia’s article on the clashes says the Su-25s landed at Abidjan airport at 2.20 pm and were damaged by MILAN missiles; its articles on Opération Licorne and on Yamoussoukro airport, French Wikipedia and Military Africa all place the Su-25s’ destruction at Yamoussoukro. French Wikipedia also puts a Mi-24 and an IAR 330 Puma at Yamoussoukro, while other accounts have helicopters destroyed at Abidjan. Military Africa gives the overall loss as two Su-25s, three Mi-24s and three other helicopters. This page records the disagreement rather than choosing one version.

The second crisis followed the disputed presidential election of 2010. By 2 April 2011, according to Wikipedia’s article on Opération Licorne, 1,400 French and other foreign nationals, 900 of them Lebanese, had entered the French camp at Abidjan airport. On the night of 2–3 April French troops again took control of the airport to evacuate French and other foreign nationals. From 4 April UN and French helicopters fired on pro-Gbagbo positions in the city, among them the Akouédo military camp. No Ivorian air force sorties from the base in those weeks are recorded in the sources checked.

The rebuilt air force has grown around the transport group here: two ex-Bulgarian An-26Bs, delivered via Tunisia on 19 and 23 July 2018, and two Mi-8Ps in March 2020. On 25 March 2020 the Chief of the General Staff, General Lassina Doumbia, visited the base and committed its aircraft to flying COVID-19 patients. An ISR King Air 360 arrived in Abidjan on 20 April 2024. The airport also saw one of the Mi-24 losses: a Mi-24D crashed there on 18 March 2020.

At the end of 2024 President Alassane Ouattara announced a concerted French withdrawal, citing the modernisation of the Ivorian army; Zone Militaire reported that the 43rd BIMa camp would be handed back from January 2025 and named after General Thomas d’Aquin Ouattara, the first Ivorian chief of the defence staff, with about 100 French personnel staying on. defenceWeb dates the handover to February 2025.