West African nations and UN to fight terrorism
More than a dozen West African nations met at UN headquarters in New York to discuss the problem of combating terrorism.
The United Nations announced that the meeting was aimed at discussing a more targeted and regional approach to building the ability of West African nations to fight terrorism not only within their borders, but also across the region. According to the UN, the West African nations were joined by some 20 donor and international organizations.
The meeting was sponsored by the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee’s Executive Directorate (CTEF). It intended to find ways to apply the various United Nations and regional resolutions aimed to fight combat terrorism, includingĂ‚Â Security Council Resolution 1373 and the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy adopted by the General Assembly in September 2006.
Although the UN agreed that the threat of terrorism in most West African countries is not high, they must take this problem seriously and do everything they can to fight it. The UN reminded that terrorists and their supporters might use instabilities and weaknesses in West Africa to recruit and train members as well as to fund and launch terrorist attacks.