No country can tackle terrorism alone–African leaders

African Heads of State and Government, including Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, have said that no country can single-handedly tackle terrorism. They said this in Pretoria, South Africa, at the high-level meeting on joint action to effectively roll-back the scourge of terrorism in Africa. The meeting was attended by the prime minister of Ethiopia, the presidents of […]

African Heads of State and Government, including Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan, have said that no country can single-handedly tackle terrorism.

They said this in Pretoria, South Africa, at the high-level meeting on joint action to effectively roll-back the scourge of terrorism in Africa.

The meeting was attended by the prime minister of Ethiopia, the presidents of Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Uganda and Kenya; while Cote D’Ivoire was represented by its parliament’s speaker. 

Jonathan’s spokesman, told journalists in Abuja late Saturday night that the leaders agreed that what was required to contain terrorism was not just a country-based or a regional approach, but a continental approach requiring the cooperation of all African states.

“The realisation is that when there is a threat of terrorism in one country, terrorists can run from one country to the other. And it has also been established in the narrative about the threat of terrorism in Africa that indeed there is a continent wide network and that many African states are facing this particular threat”, he said.

Abati said the meeting resolved that a committee be set up with the members drawn from ministers from selected countries who would work together under the leadership of the prime minister of Ethiopia and come up with a plan of action that would be tabled before the African Union (AU) summit billed to hold in Equatorial Guinea between June 25 and 26. 

He said meeting put the issue of terrorism in Nigeria and other African countries in the front burner, adding that “At the top of the continental agenda and the decision to hold that meeting is perfectly consistent with the objectives and ideals and the position of the AU with regards to the challenge of terrorism.

He described the meeting as a step forward in Jonathan’s administration’s efforts towards fighting terrorism in Nigeria, the region and the continent.

According to Abati, what Jonathan has been doing is to continue to mobilise both regional, national and international efforts to ensure a comprehensive response to the challenge of terrorism.

“You know that the AU has in its records, the Dakar Declaration against terrorism. The AU also has AU plan of action for preventing and combating terrorism and the AU had, in one of its resolutions, supported the idea of partnership and cooperation among African states to ensure they work together to combat terrorism. But what has been done at that meeting is to further foreground all these existing instruments, conventions and protocols in the light of present realities and to see how African states can come together”, he said.