The U.S. Department of State said on Thursday that it and the government of Senegal have inaugurated a new regional counterterrorism training facility in Thies, Senegal earlier on the same day.

According to a statement issued by the State Department, the new Regional Tactical Training Center was funded, constructed, and equipped through the State Department's Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) program.

The new center was ATA's first regional training facility in West Africa. Once fully operational, it was expected to expand ATA's capacity to train Senegalese and other West African partner nation law enforcement officers, in a bid to further cement the bilateral partnership "in advancing the counterterrorism capacities of law enforcement agencies in the region."

The center would provide training in hard skills such as crisis response, explosive incident countermeasures, post-blast investigations, and rural border patrol operations, read the statement.

The ATA program has been delivering counterterrorism training in Senegal since 1985.