Faced with transnational threats, Sahel countries are looking to increase security collaboration with their neighbours.
Burkina Faso could become the latest country to boost security co-operation with Sahel-Saharan states in order to tackle terrorism, organised crime and weapons proliferation.
Algerian Maghreb and African Affairs Minister Abdelkader Messahel recently wrapped up a three-day visit to Ouagadougou where he focused on the need to increase security ties.
"Consultations between Algeria, Mali, Mauritania and Niger on combating terrorism will expand to include Burkina Faso," Messahel said during his November 3rd-5th trip. "These countries have the necessary capabilities to confront terrorism, but they must work together."
Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger have already set up a series of defence mechanisms to share intelligence, including a joint military command in Tamanrasset.
"It's important that Algeria and Burkina Faso consult and unify their efforts to make this region a region of peace, security and co-operation, and stability above all," Messahel added. "This is because this region suffers from three dangers: terrorist threats by al-Qaeda; organised crime, smuggling gangs, drug traffickers; and poverty."
Burkinabe Foreign Minister Djibril Bassolé said that his country "shares the same will to co-operate and work with the rest of regional countries on issues that it deems vital and have priority, i.e. peace and stability".
The four Sahel states also recently sent representatives to a Washington security summit to discuss security concerns with senior US officials. The talks focused on co-ordinating efforts against al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and building a "security partnership" between the US and regional states.
Sahara Media quoted Messahel as saying that the "Washington meetings come in the framework of implementing a vision finalised in a conference held in Algiers last September to enhance security and military co-ordination between regional countries and the US".
Mauritanian analyst Said Ould Salek told Magharebia that Messahel's statements were a "departure from Algeria's position that rejects any form of foreign intervention in the region". He added that it was seen as a sign of a "new understanding of the increased risks of security challenges".
"As to Messahel's call to include Burkina Faso in the Sahel countries, it comes as some sort of confirmation of what he had said in the Algiers conference on terrorism last September, when he said, 'We in the Sahel group act as per a special strategy, and we always think about expanding partnership to combat terrorism in the Sahel region'," Ould Salek added.
The spread of Libyan arms has allowed AQIM to acquire weaponry similar to that owned by states, according to Houssein Ould Medou, a political analyst and head of the Mauritanian Journalists' Syndicate. He said this could portend "a change in the style and type of attacks".
Al-Qaeda admitted last week that the terror group had acquired Libyan weapons in a statement to Mauritanian news agency ANI.
"This makes Sahel countries look for a comprehensive approach that goes beyond the military solution alone to the need to dry up the sources of terrorism," Ould Medou said. "This means that the narrow local approach of dealing must be expanded to have a comprehensive regional dimension capable of creating approaches for combating extremist ideology."
Ould Medou said that "these developments encourage regional co-ordination, unification of efforts and review of the country's approach to dealing with events because it's no longer about fighting against gangs that use light weapons, but is now about modern targeted operations that may be carried out from distant and isolated locations against, for example, civilian aircraft."
© Magharebia.com 2011
