Representatives of Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Mali and Niger come together to increase their collaboration in terms of security and intelligence.
Le Monde with AFP
Seven West African States began, Thursday, November 17 in Accra, a meeting in order to increase their cooperation in the fight against the propagation of jihadist violence from the Sahel to the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea. This technical discussion session on security and intelligence cooperation must continue on Friday. The meeting aims to prepare a ministerial meeting of the countries of Accra’s initiative to be held next week, on a date not yet made public.
Launched in 2017, this forum involves Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo. Mali and Niger joined it as an observers. Collaboration is more than ever necessary, because the threat of violent extremism is “more widespread than we thought before and transcends borders,” Ghanaian security minister Albert Kan-Dapapah said on Thursday, noting that “the landscape of the threat continues to change”.
Djihadist violence in the Sahel began in 2012 in Mali, killing thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people, but they have extended to Burkina Faso and Niger Voisins and now threaten the States of the Gulf of Guinea. Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo thus face the threat of fighters from the Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda group, located in Niger and Burkina Faso and who now multiply attacks on their territory. And concern grows as to possible local recruitments within these countries.
Accra discussions must also associate representatives from governments of the European Union, the United Kingdom and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Regional heads of state will discuss security proposals during a summit scheduled for November 22, according to the initiative of Accra.
In Mali, the military junta in power since the two successive coups in 2020 and 2021 gradually approached Moscow and is suspected of working with the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which Bamako denies. This eroded links with Western partners. France has completed in the summer the withdrawal of its troops which have been operating in Mali for almost ten years to try to make the bulwark of the propagation of jihadist violence.
The peacekeepers have been present in the country since 2013, but the relations of the UN mission with the Malian authorities have deteriorated, leading to the announcement of the withdrawal of the Egyptian, Ivorian and British contingents. British Defense Minister James Heapppey said on Monday that he would join the Accra meeting, while the United Kingdom, France and other countries examine the possibilities of “rebalance” their deployment to the Sahel and in coastal countries.