Credit: Wikipedia public domain flickr   /  Nigerien soldiers take part of tactical combat casualty care training during of Flintlock 2018 in Niamey, Niger West Africa, April 19, 2018

Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Eurojust held the first coordination meeting with West African countries this week to discuss the judicial follow-up to four terrorist attacks. The attacks took place on 7 March and 20 November 2015 in Bamako (Mali), on 15 January 2016 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), and on 13 March 2016 in Grand Bassam (Ivory Coast), with 74 people killed and many others injured.  Eurojust is an agency of the European Union dealing with judicial co-operation in criminal matters among agencies of the member states. It is seated in The Hague, Netherlands. 

France Requests First Coordination Meeting With Eurojust and West African Nations 

The meeting was organised at the request of France and gathered, apart from the French judicial authorities, judicial representatives from Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, as well as other EU Member States and third countries that were affected by the attacks, according to Eurojust.    Representatives from Europol and INTERPOL also participated.  This coordination meeting at Eurojust was the first of its kind with West African countries regarding terrorist attacks.

French counter-terrorism Investigating Judge, Mr David De Pas, indicated that the focus was not only on exchanging operational information on ongoing investigations, but also on sharing information on victims and taking stock of the current terrorist threat in the West African region.

Credit: USA TODAY.com/ photo EPA Ahmed Yempabou /   French forces take up positions outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Jan. 16, 2016.  /  28 People Were Killed in Bloody Terror Attack in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou Jan. 16, 2016. The terrorist threat continues in the West African region despite the deployment of thousands of French, multi-national, and UN Peacekeeping troops. 

19  Killed  In  Deadly  Terror  Attack At  Grand  Bassam   Cote d’Ivoire   in  2016

Credit:  / ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images)          Soldiers stand on the beach on March 13, 2016 in Grand Bassam, during a commemoration ceremony for the first anniversary of the 2016 Grand Bassam beach terrorist attack, resulting in the death of 19 people. 
The attack that killed 19 people, the first of its kind in the Ivory Coast, was claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has also carried out assaults on tourist hotspots in Mali and Burkina Faso. 

‘If we want to successfully combat a network, we have to work together as a network’,

Prosecutor of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire,  Richard Christophe Adou.