Algeria Press Service (APS) ‚ December 13, 2010

The African Union (AU) appreciates the counterterrorism initiatives taken by Algeria in the Sahel region, declared on December 13 in Algiers the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Ramtane Lamamra.

The African Union appreciates the efforts made in the Sahel region and the initiatives taken by Algeria at the operational level,said Mr. Lamamra, on the sidelines of the celebration in Algiers of the 50th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Mr. Lamamra also indicated that the AU attempts to help other African countries by getting them to take steps similar to the initiatives taken by Algeria with neighboring countries, such as the Tamanrasset Operational Center or the Center for Exchange and Exploitation of Intelligence.

This is the right path to follow for cooperation but also to build confidence and strengthen coordination through shared means, so that the countries of the region contribute a determining part in the settlement of the issue,” said again the AU Commissioner for Peace and Security. However, said Mr. Lamamra, for the AU, terrorism must not be associated to either a nationality, a civilization, and even less a religion or a region. Terrorism must not be associated with a region. There is Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the Shabab in Somalia, and the Lord Resistance (LRA) army in Uganda and in the Great Lakes region,” said Mr. Lamamra, who underlined that terrorism is a transnational phenomenon.