(MENAFN- Saudi Press Agency)
Rabat, Shawwal 12, 1439, Jun 26, 2018, SPA -- Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Nasser Bouraita said here today that the largest terrorist group is currently situated, in Africa, with more than 6,000 fighters.
The Moroccan chief diplomat said during the opening of a regional meeting for political leaders of the World Alliance against ISLS, held in the city of Skhirat, Morocco, that the number of elements belonging to this group, in West Africa alone, estimated at more than 3,500 fighters.
The number of people associated with ISLS, he added, in North Africa is very important and is likely to be strengthened by the return of experienced fighters, in wars of Iraq and Syria, respectively, noting that there were about 343 terrorist attacks, in Africa, in 2017, killing at least 2,600 people, more than 22 times compared to the number, in Europe.
On the other hand, the Moroccan minister promised that the effectiveness of combating terrorism, in Africa, requires taking into account all the deep causes of this scourge, stressing that the impact of climate change on the African population and the absence of comprehensive economic growth exacerbated by a growing demographic growth, constitute fertile ground for infiltration and rooting terrorist groups and extremist ideologies.
He stressed that Africa "needs joint and immediate action in favor of achieving political stability, enhancing security and promoting economic development, to enable it to regain its first status as a true magnet for the attraction and space for development and stability."
The meeting, in which President Donald H. Trump's Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISLI Brett McGurk and a group of member countries of the alliance against ISLS, is an occasion for coalition partners to discuss next steps to ensure the permanent elimination of the organization, he stressed, in both Iraq and Syria and to combat the global ambitions of the so-called "terrorist" organizations, entirely.
-- SPA
20:44 LOCAL TIME 17:44 GMT
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