Leaders from West African countries that are members of the Accra Initiative met with European partners in Accra on November 22 for talks on “homegrown” ways to prevent jihadist conflict in the Sahel threatening to “engulf” countries on the Gulf of Guinea. The Accra Initiative members discussed how to prevent spillover of terrorism from the Sahel, as more European forces have been withdrawing from the region, especially from Mali, while Russian influence has been growing. Leaders from the Accra Initiative have also met with representatives from the West African bloc ECOWAS, the European Union, Britain and France. He added that member states will own the initiative but will require their foreign partners to support them. “For years we have been talking about the risk of contagion of the terrorist threat from the Sahel to the coastal states.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 24, 2022 22:39 UTC