On this upcoming 8 and 9 March, a meeting with Senior Officials will be held at the Farnesina to make the Africa Focus Group fully operational. The Group was created following an Italian proposal within the Global Coalition against Daesh in December 2021, co-chaired by Italy, the United States of America, Morocco, and Niger.
Considering the growing terrorist threat in many African regions and ahead of the Africa Focus Group political-level meeting scheduled to be held in Marrakech next May, the meeting in Rome aims to welcome proposals by the African countries members of the Coalition and favour a debate on the initiatives promoted by the main donor countries. During the first session, presentations will be held by Emanuela Del Re, EU Special Representative for the Sahel, and representatives of some of the most active international organizations in the fight against terrorism, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), and the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF).
The two days of meetings will end with a plenary session to discuss the operational follow-up and to prepare the work for the Marrakech meeting. Presentations will also be held by the Co-Presidents of the four Global Coalition against Daesh Working Groups on communication, counter-financing of terrorism, stabilisation, and foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) .
The meeting of the Africa Focus Group to be held in Rome confirms the attention paid by Italy to the African continent, also in terms of security of and dialogue with African countries, and the leading role played by Italy within the Global Coalition.
