Armed Forces of Cote d'Ivoire (Forces Armees de Cote d'Ivoire, FACI; aka Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, FRCI): Army (Armee de Terre), Navy (Marine Nationale), Cote Air Force (Force Aerienne Cote), Special Forces (Forces Speciale); National Gendarmerie (under the Ministry of Defense); National Police (under the Ministry of Security and Civil Protection); Coordination Center for Operational Decisions (a mix of police, gendarmerie, and FACI personnel for assisting police in providing security in some large cities) (2020)
Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL): Army, Liberian Coast Guard (2021)
note - an AFL Air Wing is under development; it was previously disbanded in 2005, but two Liberian pilots completed training by the Nigerian Air Force in 2018
Military service age and obligation
18-25 years of age for compulsory and voluntary male and female military service; conscription is not enforced; voluntary recruitment of former rebels into the new national army is restricted to ages 22-29 (2019)
18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription (2019)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP
1.1% of GDP (2019 est.)
1.4% of GDP (2018)
1.3% of GDP (2017)
1.7% of GDP (2016)
1.7% of GDP (2015)
0.5% of GDP (2019)
0.4% of GDP (2018)
0.4% of GDP (2017)
0.4% of GDP (2016)
0.4% of GDP (2015)
Military and security service personnel strengths
the Armed Forces of Cote d'Ivoire have approximately 25,000 active troops (23,000 Army, including about 2,000 Special Forces; 1,000 Navy; 1,000 Air Force); est. 5-10,000 Gendarmerie (2020)
the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) have approximately 2,000 personnel (2020)
Military equipment inventories and acquisitions
the inventory of the FACI consists mostly of older or second-hand equipment, typically of French or Soviet-era origin; Cote d'Ivoire was under a partial UN arms embargo from 2004 to 2016; since 2016, it has received limited amounts of mostly second-hand equipment from a variety of countries, with Bulgaria as the leading supplier (2020)
the AFL has almost no significant combat hardware as nearly all aircraft, equipment, materiel, and facilities were damaged or destroyed during the country's civil war; it has received little new equipment outside of ammunition, small arms, and trucks from China in 2008, and boats and vehicles donated by the US in the 2010s (2020)
