Kofi Ampeah Woode
The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), in partnership with the Government of Japan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has held a 2-Day Regional Seminar on Preventing Violent Extremism, Radicalization, and Small Arms Proliferation in the Sahel and Adjoining Coastal States in West Africa.
The training program, which was held at the King Solomon’s Garden Hotel Ahodikpè, Togo, from 21-22, February 21, 2024, was aimed at facilitating information exchange, and enhancing regional cooperation, to prevent and counter violent extremism and small arms proliferation.
Presenting his remarks at the opening ceremony, the Deputy Commandant, KAIPTC – Air Commodore (A/Cdre) David Akrong, said the workshop would discuss the pressing challenges of violent extremism, radicalization, and small arms proliferation, which threaten the peace and security of the West African sub-region.
He continued to say that, data displayed by the 2023 Global Terrorism Index and the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS), all display escalating levels of violence in the Sahel, and that over the past decade, terrorist activities have surged, with the Sahel now accounting for 43% of global terrorism-related deaths.
A/Cdre Akrong said, the estimated 11,643 fatalities linked to militant Islamist violence in the Sahel, marks a record high since the peak of the Boko Haram violence in 2015, and that sourcing of weapons by violent extremist groups, is obtained through various means, including looting military facilities, and leaked stockpiles, while expansion of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) exacerbates insecurity.
He said the seminar is the last output under the KAIPTC-Japan-UNDP project, which targeted Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Togo, and employed capacity development, training of trainers, research, and the regional policy and experience-sharing seminar, to support existing interventions such as the Accra Initiative, and national initiatives, in contributing to human security and community resilience.
In his keynote address as Guest of Honour, Togo’s Minister for Security and Protection of Civilians – Mr Calixte Batossie Madjoulba, said violent extremist and terrorist (VET) groups increasingly exploit the economies of coastal states, to store weapons and finance their criminal activities.
These groups form alliances with other criminal networks involved in illicit activities, such as arms trafficking, smuggling of petroleum products, drug trafficking, illegal mining, and hunting, to ensure their supply of human, operational, and financial resources, the Minister continued.
They also exploit the vulnerabilities of communities, as well as the resentments of populations towards the state in meeting their needs for protection, and the preservation of their livelihoods, he said.
Mr Madjoulba said, through well-oiled expansion strategies, these outlaws manage to offer services and security guarantees to those who collaborate with them, in order to facilitate the marketing of products from trafficking.
He said the ambition of these insurgent groups and militias, is to be able to compete with states, in order to oppose the legality and legitimacy of established institutions with as much means of violence, as the ability of non-state armed groups; and that their ability to obtain high-powered weapons has deprived sovereign states of the monopoly of legitimate violence.
In his welcome remarks, Mr Bouraima Inoussa – Vice President of the National Commission for the Fight against Proliferation, Circulation, and Illicit Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Togo, said it is established that VET attacks in the Sahel, increase the level of danger towards coastal states like Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo.
He was emphatic that the determining factor at the heart of VET attacks is none other than the proliferation and uncontrolled trafficking of small arms and light weapons, and that the seminar provides a platform for reflection among different actors working on the theme, to pool common efforts, to address the scourges in the sub-region.
Also present at the opening ceremony were Ghana’s Ambassador to Togo – His Excellency Kofi Mensah Demitia; and Miss Melody Azinim – Program Specialist/UNDP, Ghana.
Credit: KAIPTC CORPORATE AFFAIRS
