Brussels, 03/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - MEPs and ACP (African/Caribbean/Pacific) elected representatives meeting in Kinshasa at the Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) call on the EU and the international community to rally to the task of combating the growing insecurity in the Sahelo-Saharan strip. The upsurge in activity of the Maghreb branch of Al-Qaeda in this sparsely populated area open to trafficking of every kind (drugs, arms, people) underpins this request set out in an emergency resolution to be adopted on Saturday 4 December.
Concerned by the deterioration in security conditions, which has cost many lives and had a major impact on the mining and tourist sectors, the representatives call for the release of all hostages still held. MEPs and ACP representatives consider the EU and the international community must support the surrounding countries (Algeria, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Libya, Chad) with air surveillance, military equipment and technical support to combat the Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which operates on a 4 million square mile territory.
The AQIM organisation affiliated to the Al Qaeda movement has contributed to insecurity by kidnapping and taking hostages in this arid and scarcely populated area which is increasingly used for Latin American drug cartels for the trafficking of cocaine, a major threat for global security. The military option can only be effective if it is supported by development of the region, the resolution states. Investment in the Sahelo-Saharan strip by drug traffickers, arms traders and people smugglers is described as a “threat for security in the world”. Terrorist attacks in North and West Africa have increased 500% since 2001 in this hinge zone between sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.
The ACP calls for a summit of regional leaders under the aegis of the UN, the EU and the African Union in order to determine a strategy to combat terrorism. The regional heads of state are, for their part, invited to create a permanent consultation framework to ensure stability in the region. They are called upon to step up controls on the trade in small arms and light weapons and to freeze the banking assets of those suspected of terrorist activity. (Parl.-A.N./transl.jl)