Credit: Interpol.int  /   INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock

By Gary Raynaldo    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL)  Secretary General Jürgen Stock accentuated the need for enhanced sharing of information, particularly biometrics, to combat the terrorism threat in Sahel Africa. The Interpol chief addressed a meeting of the  G5 Sahel Security Ministers held Sep. 10, 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso where he stressed the international police organization’s ongoing commitment to the Sahel region in combating organized crime and terrorism. A surge of  deadly terror and criminal attacks in the Sahel region of Africa has alarmed the international community. The growing number of violent and increasingly sophisticated extremist groups across the Sahel – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – has resulted in the death of thousands of individuals, with hundreds of thousands more displaced, according to INTERPOL. Project FIRST (Facial, Imaging, Recognition, Searching and Tracking) will  be a key area for development at the national level across the G5 Sahel countries, according to INTERPOL.  Biometric information gathered and shared via Project FIRST has already resulted in matches between previously unconnected individuals within the Sahel and beyond, according to INTERPOL.

“The territorial defeat of Da’esh in Syria and Iraq means the threat has become more diffuse, dynamic and destabilizing. But it is not about a single group, no matter how deadly. It is not about one conflict, or even a single continent. It is a composite, sophisticated cross-regional threat, where local insurgences and grievances provide fertile ground for terrorist groups. The need-to-know and the need-to-share can coexist and bring operational impact across regions, but even the highest quality intelligence cannot be actionable, unless it is effectively streamlined.”

-INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock 

Credit: Interpol.int /  INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock addresses meeting of the  G5 Sahel Security Ministers held Sep. 10, 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 

Credit: Interpol.int /  INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock addresses meeting of the  G5 Sahel Security Ministers held Sep. 10, 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

INTERPOL Signs Agreement with G5 Africa Sahel To Strengthen Counter-Terrorism Efforts

credit: interpol.int / INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock (right)  and Permanent Secretary of the G5  Africa Sahel Maman Sambo Sidikou  sign agreement for increased information sharing to more effectively address emerging terrorist threats across region,  at Interpol  headquarters in Lyon, France May, 16, 2019.

INTERPOL and the G5 Africa Joint Force signed an agreement May 16, 2019  to utilize increased information sharing to strengthen the battle against emerging terrorist and criminal threats across the region. Burkina Faso, in particular, has seen the growth of extremist violence over the last few months, most recently on 12 May when an attack on a church in Dablo left six dead, just two days after the release of four hostages in the northern part of the country by French special forces.

Secretary General Stock said the agreement signed earlier this year with the G5 Sahel Permanent Secretariat for INTERPOL to assist the police component had become the most comprehensive initiative the organization had ever undertaken.  This includes the consolidation of the Plateformes de Coopération en Matière de Sécurité (PCMS) with national multi-agency groups which coordinate information sharing against terrorist threats, including bomb-makers and Improvised Explosive Devices in the G5 Sahel countries and regionally.

African Ambassadors Call For More Action To End Terror Attacks in SAHEL

Credit:  By Gary Raynaldo  /  Ambassador of Niger to the United States Abdallah Wafy (left),  Ambassador  of Mauritania  to the U.S.  Ba  Samba  Mamadou,  and  Second Adviser of the Embassy of Mali in the U.S. Ibrahima  Biridogo , participate in the  Africa Center for Strategic Studies  roundtable, “Strategies for Peace and Security in the Sahel” at National Defense University in Washington D.C. Sept. 9, 2019.

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies  held a roundtable, “Strategies for Peace and Security in the Sahel” at National Defense University in Washington D.C.  this month  to address the security issue in the African region.  Ambassadors and representatives  from Niger, Mauritania, Mali, Chad, and Burkina Faso participated in the forum.   Militant groups in the SAHEL have grown more active.  Events linked to militant Islamist activity, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) affiliates and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), collectively tripled in 2018, to 464 violent episodes from 192 the year prior, according to the Africa Center For Strategic Studies.   Overall, militant Islamist groups in Africa engaged in 3,050 violent events in 2018—a record level of activity.