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