The president of the Ivory Coast says he has asked France to withdraw its troops from the West African country. Ivory Coast officially gained independence from French colonial rule in 1960, but France has maintained a military presence for decades, with some 600 soldiers remaining in the country when President Alassane Ouattara announced they would have to depart.

President Alassane Ouattara: “My dear compatriots, dear brothers and sisters, we can be proud of our army, whose modernization is now a reality. It is within this framework that we have decided on the coordinated and organized withdrawal of French forces from Côte d’Ivoire.”

This follows the expulsion of French troops from several other African nations in recent months: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Chad. Of Africa’s former French colonies, only Djibouti and Gabon will continue to host French forces.