afrol News, 23 May - Interior Ministers in the Western Mediterranean region have been pressured by the urgent need to jointly combat "an alarming terrorism situation" in the whole of North Africa.

It was against this background that the ministers converged on the Mauritanian capital Nouachott to brainstorm on ways and means of containing the increasing pace of terrorism attacks in the region. This has turned the entire North Africa into a terror zone, thus chasing tourists and investors from visiting.

The region has become home to many terror groups including Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which soon transformed itself into the al-Qaeda branch in the Maghreb. Unlike the Salafist group that limited operations in Algeria, al-Qaeda has been unleashing worst attacks in the whole region.

Within a short time, al-Qaeda has spread its tentacles from the Algerian desert to northern Mali and now into the Mauritania, Ahmed Ghadhi, Secretary General of Mauritania's Foreign Ministry said.

He said the fight against terrorism has been difficult and challenging because terror groups are in the habit of sneaking across borders and launch attacks before returning to their hideouts in the deserts and mountains.

Apart from al-Qaeda Maghreb, two other large terror groups are believed to have been operating in Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Last December, four French were killed in a terror attack in Aleg, southerwestern Mauritania had raised international security concerns, resulting to the cancellation of the popular annual Dakar rally.

Also in attendance in the Nouakchott meeting is the French Interior Minister, Michele Alliot-Marie who had confirmed Libyan leader's concern about "the slow spread of terrorism in southern parts of North Africa."

Both Muammar al-Qaddafi and Alliot-Marie believed that terrorism recruiters in the Sahel are bent on using Koranon people majority of who are not conversant with Arabi and Islam.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories