Nairobi, Kenya: Kenya will Tuesday host a one day Africa Union Peace and Security Council Summit on Terrorism, to be attended by a number of Heads of State and Government from the continent.
Six presidents have already arrived Nairobi for the meeting. These include Presidents of Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda. Prime Ministers of Namibia and Algeria will lead their countries’ delagations as will Burundi First Vice President.
Security is tight in Nairobi as the meeting gets underway.
The group had expressed deep concern over the continued threat posed by terrorism in Africa, particularly in the Sahelo-Saharan region, the Horn of Africa, including in Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti, as well as in the Central African region with the attacks carried by the Lord Resistance Army (LRA).
The meeting is expected to agree on concrete steps meant to enhance the ongoing efforts to effectively address the threat of terrorism, including the early ratification and domestication of the relevant AU and international instruments.
The summit will also seek ways of mobilising for additional support to Africa’s efforts and the enhancement of international coordination and collaboration in the war against terror.
It is also expected that during the meeting, regional leaders will agree on practical steps to enhance the implementation of the AU counter-terrorism framework at national, regional and continental levels.
The summit comes at a time when radicalism, extremism and terrorism are on the rise in the continent.
In Kenya, security challenges emanate from various terrorist attacks and the continued threat from Somalia’s Al-Shabaab terror group. There is also Boko Haram and other terror groups in the region.
The meeting is open to all AU Member States, the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA), the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the League of Arab States and the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council, as well as the World Bank, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and Spain and Germany, which provide support for the ACSRT.
Also Turkey and the United States will be invited as the co-chairs of the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum (GCTF).
The objective of the meeting is to undertake an in-depth review of the situation and the ongoing AU’s efforts to combat terrorism in Africa within the framework of the AU normative and operational instruments, including the cooperative mechanisms being implemented by AMISOM, as well as to agree on practical steps to enhance the implementation of the AU counter-terrorism framework at national, regional and continental levels.
