Algérie Presse Service (APS) – January 25, 2012
Meeting in Nouakchott, Mauritania, the countries of the Sahel region have reiterated their determination to face together the new security challenges that have emerged in their area.

Their representatives were unanimous in underscoring the need to strengthen existing mechanisms put in place toward that end and have reiterated their availability to strengthen cooperation and concertation with their extra-regional partners to combat the terrorist threat.

Anarchic circulation of weapons since the degradation of the situation in Libya in 2011, transnational criminality and terrorism linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its connections to the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria were also discussed at the meeting.

The Malian foreign minister declared that poverty “provides relatively favorable ground to terrorist organizations which live off illicit activities, particularly drug trafficking and ransoms gained from hostage-taking.”

The Malian official namely proposed providing aid to the populations living in the border areas of the four countries and strengthening legal assistance through conventions and training programs in the areas of trans-border circulation, travel document control, and counterterrorism.

Nigerien foreign minister Mohamed Bazoum, for his part, said that terrorist activity feeds off payment of ransoms, which renders “useless” any counterterrorism and development efforts.

Nigeria’s representative, guest of the meeting, argued in support of not limiting the fight against terrorism to terrorist groups and extending it to “their sponsors within and outside the Continent.”

Minister Delegate for Maghreb and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel, for his part, expressed Algeria’s commitment in support of prohibiting ransom payment and its opposition to any concession to terrorist groups, such as release of terrorists already sentenced or still being sought.