Every war the Air Force of Ivory Coast has fought
The Bouaké strike of 6 November 2004 is told as the published record tells it: at least one Su-25 struck the French Licorne position, nine French soldiers and an American civilian were killed, and the wounded are given as 31, 37 or 40 depending on the source; the account the Gbagbo government gave at the time was not found in the sources checked. In the 2010–2011 crisis no Ivorian air force combat sorties are recorded, and the air action was by UN and French helicopters. On the northern border no Ivorian air strikes were found; the Mi-24 lost there in 2021 is not described as a combat loss in any source checked. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the civil war of 2002 to the drones over the northern border.
| Konflikt | Roky | Proti | Hlavní letadlo | Výpady | Ztráta letadla | |
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| First Ivorian Civil Warthe government air campaign of 2002–2004Ivorian air force (FANCI) | 2002–2004 | Forces Nouvelles rebels | Su-25, Mi-24 | |||
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Su-25 jets and Mi-24 gunships, flown partly by foreign crews, attacked rebel targets for the Gbagbo government. The rebellion of September 2002 caught the government with an air arm built for transport. President Laurent Gbagbo’s government rearmed quickly: Wikipedia, summarising the published record, lists purchases from Angola, Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Romania and Ukraine between 2002 and 2004, among them Sukhoi Su-25 attack jets and Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships, and reports the recruitment of foreign personnel, including Belarusian pilots and men previously associated with Executive Outcomes. The Su-25s were used against rebel targets. Opération Licorne, launched by France on 22 September 2002, grew to about 4,000 troops by July 2003 and, with the UN mission UNOCI from 4 April 2004, held a buffer zone between the two sides. The air force’s campaign therefore stayed small and intermittent until November 2004, when the government tried to break the stalemate from the air. Výsledek The front froze under the Linas-Marcoussis agreement (26 January 2003) and UN and French forces; the war ended formally with the Ouagadougou agreement of 4 March 2007. Numbers of aircraft, sorties and casualties caused by government air strikes are not published in the sources checked; supplier countries are as listed by Wikipedia.
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| Opération Dignité and the Bouaké strikethe French destruction of the Ivorian air forceIvorian air force (FANCI) | 2004 | Forces Nouvelles rebels and France (Opération Licorne) | Su-25, Mi-24 | |||
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Flew an air offensive against the rebel north from 4 November 2004; on 6 November struck the French Licorne camp at Bouaké. On 4 November 2004 the government launched Opération Dignité, an air offensive against the rebel-held north, with two Su-25s — crewed, according to Wikipedia, by two Belarusian mercenaries and two Ivorian pilots — and a Mi-24. On 6 November at least one Su-25 attacked the French Licorne position at Bouaké. Nine French soldiers and an American aid worker were killed; Wikipedia’s articles give the wounded as 31, 37 or 40. It was the heaviest loss for a French operation since the Beirut barracks bombing of 1983. About fifteen minutes later French forces destroyed the two Su-25s on the ground at Yamoussoukro, and President Jacques Chirac ordered the destruction of the whole air force; Mi-24s and other helicopters were destroyed at Abidjan, two of them, by one account, in fighting over the city. On 15 November the Security Council condemned the air raids as a ceasefire violation and imposed an arms embargo. In April 2021 a Paris court sentenced a Belarusian pilot and two Ivorian co-pilots, named by Wikipedia as Patrice Ouei and Ange-Magloire Gnanduillet, to life imprisonment in absentia. Výsledek France destroyed the Ivorian air force the same day; the UN imposed an arms embargo on 15 November 2004 (Resolution 1572). Casualty and loss figures differ between sources and are given as ranges. The account of the strike given by the Gbagbo government at the time, and Ivorian casualty figures from the unrest in Abidjan that followed, were not found in the sources checked and are left out. Details of the 2021 trial rest on Wikipedia; primary press reports (BBC, RFI) could not be fetched.
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| Second Ivorian Civil Warthe 2010–2011 post-election crisisIvorian air force (FANCI) | 2010–2011 | |||||
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No combat sorties by the Ivorian air force are recorded in the sources checked; the decisive air action was by UN and French helicopters against forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo. The disputed presidential election of November 2010 left two rival presidents. With the air force still a shadow of its 2004 self and under a UN arms embargo, the crisis was fought on the ground. On 30 March 2011 the Security Council, in Resolution 1975, authorised UNOCI to use all necessary means to protect civilians. On 4 April UN Mi-24P gunships, crewed by Ukrainian personnel seconded to the UN, and French helicopters attacked pro-Gbagbo positions, including the Akouédo military camp in Abidjan; on 10 April UN and French Mi-24s and Gazelles struck Gbagbo’s remaining heavy weapons, heavily damaging the presidential palace. France had taken over the running of Abidjan airport on 4 April to evacuate foreigners. On 11 April Ouattara’s troops captured Gbagbo, with French helicopters and armour in support. Výsledek Gbagbo was captured on 11 April 2011 by forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara with French support. Whether any Ivorian government aircraft flew during the crisis could not be established from the sources checked. |
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| Northern border security operationsagainst armed groups from the SahelAir Force of Ivory Coast | 2020– | Jihadist armed groups operating from the Sahel | Mi-24, Wing Loong II, DT-26 | 1 | ||
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Reconnaissance with Mi-24 helicopters and, from 2026, Wing Loong II drones; surveillance drones for the northern border. Jihadist attacks in northern Ivory Coast gave the rebuilt air force its first operational task in years. The defence ministry announced on 10 September 2021 that a Mi-24 flying a reconnaissance mission near the Burkina Faso border had crashed in the night with five crew killed, and opened an investigation. In December 2021 the armed forces ordered four Delair DT-26 long-range surveillance drones specifically to watch the northern border, and the ISR King Airs bought in 2022 and 2024 and EU-funded tactical drones delivered in February 2026 added to that picture. In August 2026 the armed forces confirmed two Chinese Wing Loong II drones at Bouaké Air Base flying intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions; Military Africa notes the type can carry weapons, but they were delivered unarmed. Výsledek Pokračování. No air strikes by Ivorian aircraft were found in the sources checked. Opponents are described as reported by the press; no official order of battle is published.
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Nic neodpovídá tomuto vyhledávání.
Každé číslo, zkontrolované
- defenceWeb: Côte d’Ivoire boosts military capabilities with new Chinese patrol vessels and drones (18 August 2026)Two Wing Loong II at Bouaké Air Base, ordered 2024, delivered unarmed with EO/IR turret, confirmed 10 August 2026.
- defenceWeb: Ivory Coast Mi-24 crashes, killing five on board (13 September 2021)Crash on the night of 9–10 September 2021 near the Burkina Faso border; earlier losses 2019 and 2020; replacement ex-Bulgarian Mi-24s August 2020 and January 2021; AW139 and AS365N.
- Military Africa: Ivory Coast confirms newly acquired Chinese Wing Loong II drones (21 August 2026)Two Wing Loong II at Bouaké, confirmed 10 August 2026; CATIC contract June 2024 includes three K-8s.
- Military Africa: Ivory Coast to monitor northern borders with Delair DT-26 surveillance drones (22 December 2021)Four DT-26 ordered for the northern border.
Údaje ověřeny 1. října 2026. Back to the Air Force of Ivory Coast.