ACCRA - West African coastal states are holding talks on boosting military cooperation against jihadist violence spilling over from the Sahel. This follows recent announcements that several international peacekeeping contingents are being withdrawn from Mali.
Benin, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Togo are confronting increased risks from Islamic State jihadists and Al Qaeda militants waging war over their northern borders in the Sahel.
As part of the so-called Accra Initiative, representatives of coastal states on the Gulf of Guinea, the European Union and others met in the Ghanaian capital on Thursday for talks on security and intelligence cooperation.
Ghana's National Security Minister Albert Kan-Dapaah said collaboration was needed as the threat from extremism is "more widespread than previously thought and transcending borders".
Jihadist attacks on the rise in 2022
In the first quarter of 2022, Africa recorded 346 attacks, almost half of which were in the west of the continent.
Launched in 2017, the Accra Initiative includes Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire. Burkina Faso. Mali and Niger have joined since.
The Accra meeting – due to continue into next week – will also involve representatives from the EU and British government and the 15-member West African bloc ECOWAS.
A summit with regional heads of state is planned for 22 November, where leaders will discuss the security proposals.
Spreading insurgency
The Sahel's jihadist conflict began in northern Mali in 2012, spread to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2015 and now involves states on the Gulf of Guinea.
French and other peacekeeping missions had been operating in Mali for almost a decade as a bulwark against the spread of Islamist violence.
But after two coups in Mali, the military junta has moved closer to Moscow, receiving Russian weapons and allowing mercenaries from the Russian mercenary group Wagner to operate on Malian soil.
Earlier this month, France officially ended its Barkhane anti-jihadist mission in Mali.
Britain also announced a pullout from the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA within the next six months, and Germany has warned its soldiers would quit the force by the end of next year "at the latest".
