President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says West African leaders must ensure that the growing terrorism in the sub Region comes to an end soon.
According to the president, the actions of the terrorists and extremist groups which have rapidly spread across the region are negatively affecting the strength of the West African democracies.
To him, the activities of the terrorists and violent extremists are unfortunate and a disregard for national sovereignty.
“Indeed, as recent events continue to render the Sahelian countries of West Africa epicenters of terrorism, we continue to watch in Angst how the activities of terrorists and extremist groups have resulted in the unfortunate disregard for the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of our states, the painful deterioration of the strength of our democracies, the wanton displacement of masses of our populations and the needless loss of considerable numbers of lives.” He said.
President Akufo Addo was speaking at the opening of the Heads of State meeting of the Accra initiative on Tuesday, November 22, 2022.
The Accra Initiative which is a meeting to discuss ways of preventing the spillover of terrorism from the Sahel region originally comprised five member states namely Ghana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D’lvoire, and Togo, who were soon joined by Mali and Niger with Nigeria with an observer status.
The president explained that the Initiative was grounded on the principles of good political and security governance, with the ideals of ownership by synergy among member states serving as the pivots around which the initiative revolves.
“This is why the Initiative, even in the early stages of its establishment, proved beneficial in engendering greater responsibility for member states, ultimately leading to the successful conduct of joint ad hoc military operations to flush out terrorists and transnational organized criminal groups from our common borders.” He continued.
In this regard, he said the Initiative should not be perceived as opposed to existing counterterrorism frameworks in Africa but be viewed as a critical piece of the answer to the overall fight against terrorism and violent extremism in the Sahel and West Africa.
Read also: UK troops may go to Ghana in shift of strategy against terror – Telegraph reports
Source: Aba Aikins Appah/ATLFMNEWS
