Ivory Coast will pay thousands of soldiers 15 million CFA francs ($25,782) each as part of buy-outs aimed at reducing the size of its unruly and mutiny-prone military, documents showed on Monday.
Africa’s fastest growing economy in 2016, Ivory Coast was hit earlier this year by successive uprisings by low-ranking troops. The costly bonuses paid to end the unrest helped balloon the budget deficit this year, and the episode tarnished its image as one of the continent’s rising economic stars.
The government said last week that it would retire around 1,000 soldiers by the end of the year as part of efforts to bring the force – estimated at about 25,000 troops – in line with “accepted standards”.
A spokesman did not say last week how much the soldiers would receive under the voluntary scheme. However, a document obtained by Reuters outlining the plan stated that each retired soldier would receive a payment of 15 million CFA francs.
Neither the spokesman nor Ivory Coast’s defence minister were available to comment on Monday. Read the full report here.