The Africa Focus Group – a Group on combating terrorism in the African Continent promoted by Italy within the framework of the Global Coalition against Daesh – closed its meeting today at the Farnesina.
The meeting, co-chaired by Italy, the United States, Morocco and Niger, proposed that the Group become an important platform converging the needs of African Countries in actions to combat terrorism and in initiatives launched by donor countries and international organizations in the Coalition’s sectors of competence.
In the face of the growing threat of terrorism, also in terms of geographical expansion, the meeting reaffirmed its common commitment to renew the efforts to support the African Countries involved, in a logic of close coordination with the regional and multilateral initiatives already in place. In addition to Niger, the other discussants in the debate were the representatives of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria and Somalia in addition to Ghana and Mozambique, in the capacity as observers. Significant were also the contributions by the EU Special Representative for the Sahel, Emanuela Del Re and by the officials of the international organizations most active in combating terrorism, who underscored the role of civil society in preventing and combating violent extremism and terrorism.
The meeting also offered the opportunity for the co-chairs of the 4 Working Groups of the Coalition (communication, fight against the financing of terrorism, stabilization, and foreign fighters) to update the African partners present on their respective activities and on the new engagement opportunities in sectors of priority importance, such as combating online propaganda. Through a broad and participatory debate, the meeting achieved the goal of defining the contents and prospects of the Africa Focus Group meeting which is scheduled to convene next May, on the sidelines of the Coalition’s Ministerial Meeting in Morocco.
