By Akeem Oyetunji Piqued by the spread of terrorism across the continent, African leaders at the weekend in Pretoria, South Africa, agreed to adopt a continental solution to tackling insurgency.
The meeting hosted by President Jacob Zuma ahead of his inauguration, was attended by the leaders of Ethiopia, Ghana, Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Cote D’ Ivoire and Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan.
Also, the meeting set up a committee that will draw up an action plan towards achieving the goal.
A committee chaired by Ethiopian Prime Ministers was therefore set up to draw up a plan of action that would be tabled before the next African Union meeting in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
Briefing State House correspondents, Presidential Media Adviser, Dr Reuben Abati, said the leaders discussed modalities for defining a stronger framework for cooperation and partnership amongst African states to deal with terrorism.
He said the leaders realized that “what is required is not just a country based approach or a regional approach but a continental approach which requires the cooperation of All African States.
“The realization of course is that when there is a threat of terrorism in one country. Terrorists can run from one country to the other. And it has also been established in the narrative about the threat of terrorism in Africa that indeed there is a continent wide network and that many African states are facing this particular threat.
“So these were the issues discussed and the Excellences then set up a committee and agreed that a committee be set up with the members drawn from ministers from selected countries who would then work together under the leadership of the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and come up with a plan of action that would be tabled before the African Union Summit taking place in Equatorial Guinea between June 25 and June 26th”.
Prompt News recalls that President Jonathan and his counterparts from Cameroon, Chad, Benin, Niger and Congo, had earlier attended a Regional Summit in Paris, at the instance of President Francois Hollande, on the security situation in Nigeria.
