West Africa: Seven countries want to strengthen their anti-jihadist cooperation

Representations of seven western states Africa started yesterday Thursday (17/11) in Accra Ghana talks aimed at strengthening their cooperation in the fight against the spread of violence jihadists from the Sahel to the shores of the Gulf of Guinea.

The technical work, concerning cooperation at the level of security and information gathering, is expected to continue today. They intend to prepare a ministerial-level meeting of the countries of the so-called Accra initiative, which is expected to be organized next week – the exact date has not yet been officially announced.

In this forum, established in 2017, members are Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo and Ghana. Mali and Niger participate as observers.

Cooperation is needed more than ever as the threat of violent extremists is “more widespread than we previously thought and cuts across borders”, Ghana’s national security minister Albert Khan Dappa said yesterday, stressing that “the threat landscape does not stop changing”. changes”.

Jihadist violence in the Sahel began in 2012 in Mali, where it has claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions more. It has spread to neighboring states, Burkina Faso and Niger, and is now threatening the Gulf of Guinea states.

Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo and Ghana are threatened by the action of organizations that pledge allegiance to either the Islamic State (IS) or Al-Qaeda, they are coming from the territories of Niger and Burkina Faso and have multiplied attacks on their territories . Fears are expressed about the possible recruitment of jihadists in these countries themselves.

Government representatives from the EU, Britain and the Economic Community of West African States (Cédéao) are also expected to take part in the talks in Accra.

Heads of state and government in the region will discuss security proposals at their summit on Tuesday, November 22, according to the Accra initiative.

The military junta in Mali, where two coups took place in 2020 and 2021, has increasingly turned to Moscow and the West accuses it of hiring the notorious Russian private military company Wagner, which Bamako denies.

This rapidly soured relations with Mali’s Western partners. In the summer, France completed the withdrawal of its troops, which had been operating in the country for almost ten years to prevent the spread of jihadist activity.

There is also a UN peacekeeping mission in the country, but relations between Mali’s military regime and that force are also deteriorating, which has led to the announcement of the imminent withdrawal of troops from Egypt, Ivory Coast and Britain. Germany is also preparing to announce that it will withdraw its forces from Mali by the end of 2023 at the latest.

British Under-Secretary of Defense James Hippie said on Monday he would attend the Accra initiative meeting as London, Paris and other capitals consider “options” to “re-deploy” their forces in the Sahel, as well as in littoral countries.