Paris and eleven West African countries agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fight against Jihadist terrorism remains a serious threat in particular in the Sahel-Saharan strip, as in France.
To strengthen their capacity for action, the Ministers of the Interior or Defence of the eleven African countries participated Monday and Tuesday at a seminar in Paris around the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve. “We reaffirmed our commitment to fight with full determination, against jihadist terrorism”, said Bernard Cazeneuve to the press.
“The threat of AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) on West Africa remains strong and we are all well aware” , he added, recalling the participation of Paris military operations in Mali since 2013.
The French minister stressed that several countries were affected: The Mali with Bamako attack November 20, 2015, Burkina Faso with the Ouagadougou January 15, 2016, the Ivory Coast with the bombing of the Grand Bassam March 13, 2016, Niger June 3, 2016 in an attack in Bosso.
Of against-propaganda campaigns
“So there is clearly a regional issue in West Africa and the Sahel-Saharan Africa”, he added, expressing its support for Cameroon where six soldiers were killed in the night of Monday to Tuesday in the north of the country in an attack attributed to the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
Ministers agreed a series of measures, primarily the development of propaganda-against campaigns for “better fight against jihadist propaganda and reach young audiences, particularly exposed to indoctrination”.
A practical guide to detect radicalization
The countries concerned will implement a mobilization program covering all aspects of counter-terrorism with exchanges of personnel and field exercises. Finally, a practical guide for all police officers and gendarmes for the detection of radicalization processes, particularly among young people, will be published.
Five states of the Sahel present in Paris (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad) established in February 2014 G5 Sahel, an institutional framework for regional cooperation on development and security policies. But it was the first time they found themselves in Paris in an expanded meeting on Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Senegal, Guinea, Cameroon and Togo.
