The high-level meeting of the Heads of Counter-Terrorism and Security Agencies of North African and Sahel countries is “a very important initiative” taken by Morocco and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, UNOCT Deputy Secretary-General, Vladimir Voronkov underlined on Thursday.
This high-level meeting is very important and could be considered a “prerequisite” for the success of the fight against terrorism, Voronkov told the press on the sidelines of this two-day event.
The high-level meeting of the Heads of Counter-Terrorism and Security Agencies of North African and Sahel countries kicked off Thursday in Marrakech, under the auspices of the UNOCT.
Recalling the importance of this type of meetings in strengthening coordination in the fight against terrorism, the UN official said he was pleased to hear the majority of speakers discuss better coordination, given the continued and current terrorist threat.
“We must address the threat through joint action and that is the mission of this meeting: to organize this joint action,” he stated, noting that the ultimate purpose is to exchange visions on how to better organize this joint action.
“I think this is a very good initiative that will maintain the momentum for this initiative to become regular (….) We will be in contact with the Kingdom of Morocco on this particular issue,” the UN official said.
The two-day high-level meeting, themed “Capacity Building and Training for West African States”, is attended by 23 countries in the region.
This event will serve as a platform for high-level participants to discuss strategies and approaches to strengthen regional cooperation on counter-terrorism issues, terrorist threat assessment, and capacity-building needs for long-term resilience.
