Talks on combating terrorism, security Niger-Libya borders in Niamey

Ahmed Adel

Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou met on Friday in the capital, Niamey, with Ahmed al-Sharif, a member of the Libyan Parliament, to discuss the protection of mutual borders between the two countries.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways of joint cooperation in the fight against terrorism, securing borders, and stressed the need to protect them by setting new ways to combat terrorism.

Located in the vicinity of Lake Chad, Niger suffers from the terrorist expansion of the Boko Haram terrorist group, not to mention being stuck to Mali, which suffers from the presence of terrorist organizations such as Daesh, Al-Qaeda and Nusrat Al-Islam.

In August 2019, the President of Niger, in a speech during the anniversary of the Independence Day, declared that all conflicts in the Sahel countries are due to the intimidation of terrorist organizations in the region and their alliance with armed groups, which was manifested during the Libyan crisis that poses a serious threat to the region.

During an interview with Jeune Afrique newspaper, Issoufou stressed his country is more than ever confronting the activities of terrorist groups, pointing out that this is linked to several things; The first is the security threats in West Africa since the nineties of the last century due to the growing influence of terrorist groups in Algeria, and the emergence of the Bokoham Haram in Nigeria about 10 years ago.

The second is related to the growing power of terrorist groups after the collapse of the Libyan state in the events of February 2011, after the overthrow of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, which the President of Niger described as “a serious mistake involving Western powers”, and thirdly the spread of terrorism in the Lake Chad region, especially the terrorism of  Boko group. Fourth, the western border with Mali and the activity of terrorist organizations and organized crime groups.

According to Nasser Maamoun Issa, a researcher on African affairs, armed groups in Libya cooperates with drug and human trafficking gangs. These gangs cooperate with armed organizations located in the Sahel-Saharan region, taking advantage of absence of security services in that region.

He added in an interview with The Reference that the conflict in southern Libya was transferred to Chad and Niger, the impact of the exploitation of the situation of tribal conflicts in both countries; which leads to increased terrorism in the African Sahel.

The researcher also said it is necessary for Sahel countries to cooperate and collaborate efforts to stop these organizations and eliminate them.