The Conseil de l'Entente ("Council of Accord" or "Council of Understanding") is a West African regional co-operation forum established in May 1959 by Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin, and joined in 1996 by Togo. West Africa is the region of western Africa generally considered to include these countries: Benin Burkina Faso Cameroon Côte dIvoire (Ivory Coast) Equatorial Guinea Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Mali Niger Nigeria Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) Senegal Sierra Leone Togo Chad, Mauritania, and... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Côte dIvoire (often called Ivory Coast in English; see below about the name) is a country in West Africa. ... Niger is a landlocked sub-Saharan country in Western Africa situated north of Nigeria, east of Mali, and south of Algeria and Libya, named after the Niger river. ... Burkina Faso is a landlocked nation of western Africa. ... The Republic of Benin is a nation of western Africa, formerly known as Dahomey. ... 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The Togolese Republic is a country in West Africa, bordering Ghana in the west, Benin in the east and Burkina Faso in the north. ...

The body grew out of the short-lived Sahel-Benin Union, itself created by the four original Council members as a partial successor to the dissolved French regional colonial federation of French West Africa. The French Republic or France (French: République française or France) is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. ... French West Africa (Afrique occidentale française, or AOF) was a federation of eight French territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), Guinea, Côte dIvoire, Niger, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and Dahomey (now Benin). ...

Since 1966 the Council has possessed a permanent administrative Secretariat based in Abidjan, the capital of Côte d'Ivoire. A Mutual Aid and Loan Guarantee Fund exists to assist poorer members from a common pool.-1... Abidjan is the largest city and former capital of Côte dIvoire. ...

See also

• Entente
• Trade bloc
• International organizations

Entente, meaning a diplomatic understanding, may refer to a number of agreements: The Entente Cordiale, 1904 between France and the United Kingdom. ... A trade bloc is a large free trade zone or near-free trade zone formed by one or more tax, tariff and trade agreements. ... An international organization (also called intergovernmental organization) is an organization of international scope or character. ... Politics is the process and method of decision-making for groups of human beings. ...